ass Strait; and
they beg leave respectfully to recommend to your Excellency and
honourable Council, that immediate steps may be taken for commencing so
desirable an undertaking as the erection of a lighthouse on that spot.

(Signed) J. GIBBES, Chairman. Council Chamber, 6th September, 1842.)

In another part of this work I have adverted to the desirability of
forming other convict establishments than those at present existing,
particularly on the north-west and north-east coasts; and I would
especially recommend the neighbourhood of Hanover Bay on the former, and
Halifax Bay on the latter.* By these means many hitherto untrodden lands
may speedily be adapted to the purposes of colonization, and reclaimed
from their present unprofitable state. In a country like Australia, where
the proportion of bad land predominates, it is almost necessary, in the
first instance, to force settlements by means of convict labour. A number
of buildings is always a cheering sight to a settler on his first
arrival, and gives him encouragement to exertion; whereas, if the country
wears its natural arid, desolate, uninviting appearance, dejection and
despondency ensue.

(*Footnote. We have just learned that it is the intention of Government
to form a settlement of the kind mentioned in the text on the north-east
coast; and that the province is to be called North Australia, the
southern boundary of which is to be the 26th parallel. I have already
expressed my opinion, that convicts should not be sent to Port Essington,
as the proximity of the islands would afford them facilities of escape.)

COMET.

During our stay in the Derwent, perhaps one of the most splendid comets
that has ever appeared, illuminated the southern hemisphere for several
nights. We did not see it until the evening of the 5th of March; but it
was observed on the 2nd at Launceston; and by a ship at sea, off Cape
Leeuwin, on the 27th of February. Several observations were made with it,
when the nucleus, which was of a deep red colour, somewhat resembling the
planet Mars, was visible.* The length of the tail (on the 5th) measured
forty degrees; but was afterwards ten degrees longer. Towards its centre
it showed great intensity of light, becoming visible in the crepusculum
before stars of the second magnitude. Through its more attenuated
extremity, the stars were plainly seen, the coma seeming to be much less
dense, showing the sky through the centre like a dark line.

(*Fo