Discoveries in Australia (Vol. 1&2). John Lort Stokes
John Lort Stokes
Discoveries in Australia
(Vol. 1&2)
With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle
e-artnow, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
EAN 4064066387891
Table of Contents
Volume 1
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1.2. PLYMOUTH TO BAHIA.
CHAPTER 1.3. FROM THE CAPE TO SWAN RIVER.
CHAPTER 1.4. FROM SWAN RIVER TO ROEBUCK BAY.
CHAPTER 1.5. FROM ROEBUCK BAY TO SKELETON POINT.
CHAPTER 1.6. POINT CUNNINGHAM TO FITZROY RIVER.
CHAPTER 1.7. THE FITZROY RIVER TO PORT GEORGE THE FOURTH, AND RETURN TO SWAN RIVER.
CHAPTER 1.8. SWAN RIVER TO SYDNEY.
CHAPTER 1.10. SYDNEY TO PORT ESSINGTON.
APPENDIX 3. DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW AUSTRALIAN REPTILES. BY JOHN EDWARD GRAY, ESQUIRE, F.R.S., ETC.
INTRODUCTION.
I cannot allow these volumes to go before the public, without expressing my thanks to the following gentlemen for assistance, afforded to me in the course of the composition of this work: To Captain Beaufort, R.N., F.R.S., Hydrographer to the Admiralty, for his kindness in furnishing me with some of the accompanying charts; to Sir John Richardson, F.R.S; J.E. Gray, Esquire, F.R.S.; E. Doubleday, Esquire, F.L.S., and A. White, Esquire, M.E.S., for their valuable contributions on Natural History, to be found in the Appendix; to J. Gould, Esquire, F.R.S., for a list of birds collected during the voyage of the Beagle; to Lieutenants Gore and Fitzmaurice, for many of the sketches which illustrate the work; and to B. Bynoe, Esquire, F.R.C.S., for several interesting papers which will be found dispersed in the following pages.
Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S., also merits my warmest thanks, for the important addition to the work of his visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.
I have to explain, that when the name Australasia is used in the following pages, it is intended to include Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) and all the islands in the vicinity of the Australian continent.
All bearings and courses, unless it is specified to the contrary, are magnetic, according to the variation during the period of the Beagle's voyage.
The longitudes are generally given from meridians in Australia, as I much question whether any portion of the continent is accurately determined with reference to Greenwich. Sydney, Port Essington, and Swan River, have been the meridians selected; and the respective positions of those places, within a minute of the truth, I consider to be as follows:
Swan River (Scott's Jetty, Fremantle) 115 degrees 47 minutes East.
Port Essington (Government house) 132 degrees 13 minutes East.
Sydney (Fort Macquarie) 151 degrees 16 minutes East.
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CHAPTER 1.1. INTRODUCTION.
Objects of the Voyage.
The Beagle commissioned.
Her former career.
Her first Commander.
Instructions from the Admiralty and the Hydrographer.
Officers and Crew.
Arrival at Plymouth.
Embark Lieutenants Grey and Lushington's Exploring Party.
Chronometric Departure.
Farewell glance at Plymouth.
Death of King William the Fourth.
For more than half a century, the connection between Great Britain and her Australian possessions has been one of growing interest; and men of the highest eminence have foreseen and foretold the ultimate importance of that vast continent, over which, within the memory of living man, the roving savage held precarious though unquestioned empire.
Of the Australian shores, the North-western was the least known, and became, towards the close of the year 1836, a subject of much geographical speculation. Former navigators were almost unanimous in believing that the deep bays known to indent a large portion of this coast, received the waters of extensive rivers, the discovery of which would not only open a route to the interior, but afford