e no longer said, in the words of the eloquent
appeal of Burke, that if we left India, we should have no more
monuments of our sojourn to show, than if we had been lions and
tigers. We shall have to show the steamboat, the railroad, and the
true origin and foundation of both,--public honour, public
intelligence, and a sense of the rights of subjects and the duties of
sovereigns.

The increasing passage of the southern commerce through Torres Strait,
had attracted the notice of the British government to the peculiar
perils of the navigation. The Strait is one of difficult passage from
the state of the currents, reefs, &c., and the difficulty was enhanced
by the imperfect nature of the charts. Along the east coast of
Australia, and as far to the north as New Guinea, an immense ridge of
coral rock extends; and through the gaps in this barrier reef, vessels
must find their way to the Torres Strait. The two government vessels,
the Fly and the Bramble, were sent out to make a survey of the barrier
reef. The especial objects of the expedition being--the survey of the
eastern edge of the great chain of reefs--the examination of all the
channels through the barrier reef, with details of those which afford
a safe passage--and the erection of beacons on their outer islands as
guides to the navigation.

The commanders of the vessels were directed to give marked attention
to all circumstances connected with the health of the crews, the
climate, temperature, products, and science; and especially the
phenomena of magnetism. A geologist and a zoologist were added to the
expedition, the whole under the command of Captain Francis Blackwood.
In order to make the subsequent details more intelligible, we give a
brief abstract of the voyage. The Fly, with her tender the Bramble
schooner, sailed from Falmouth, April 11, 1842, and made the usual
course to the Cape, touching at Teneriffe on the way, where a party
ascended the Peak, and determined its height to be twelve thousand and
eighty feet above the sea. Reaching Van Diemen's Land in August, and
Australia soon after, they sailed from Port Stephens December 19, to
commence their survey. After an examination of the Capricorn Group,
they commenced the survey of the northern part of the great
barrier-reef, up to the Murray Islands.

In the next year, they erected a beacon on Raines Islet to mark the
entrance of a good passage through the reef. The rest of the year was
spent in surveying To