86^ STOKES. ILLmGWORTH. [June 9, 1856. 



pentaria was very good, though he had never been nearer to the district than 

 Torres Strait. 



Mr. G. F. Leslie, F.B.G.S., referred to the question of steam communica- 

 tion. It was the wish of the Australian colonists to have a speedy, direct, 

 and immediate communication with England by the shortest route. The 

 island of Diego Garcia, which had been proposed as a coal station, pre- 

 sented several drawbacks, since, before it could be so used, lighthouses and 

 coal depots must be constructed. As considerable time would thus be taken 

 to prepare it, this plan must for the present be set aside, the requirements of 

 the colonies being immediate. The selection of either of the islands of Mau- 

 ritius or Ceylon seemed to be a matter of indifference, since the route by 

 either would be about the same. It had been shown that the expense need be 

 no obstacle, as the sum of 50,000?., and afterwards an additional sum of 

 25,000?., had been voted by the colony of Victoria towards this object. A 

 like sum, which the Imperial Government had proposed to give, places 150,000?. 

 at immediate disposal, and this will be found quite sufficienr. With refer- 

 ence to the route by Torres Strait, he agreed with Captain Stokes that it would 

 be the most direct ; and if the selection would not be attended with the same 

 disadvantages as that by Diego Garcia, viz., the necessity for lighthouses and 

 buoys to mark out a safe passage, he had no hesitation in saying that it would 

 be by far the best. There were some reasons why the preference should be 

 given to the Mauritius route, because then the Cape of Good Hope could be 

 connected with the line, which would be a great benefit to that colony. The 

 Atlantic had been ploughed, both in winter and summer, at the rate of ten 

 knots an hour, and therefore he concluded that the Indian Ocean might be 

 traversed with the same speed. Should a line of communication be established 

 from Australia to Ceylon, and from thence to Suez, he believed that within 

 twelve months it would be found requisite to establish an independent line 

 through Torres Strait to Singapore, to meet the requirements of the commerce 

 between Australia and India, which is very extensive and daily increasing. 



With reference to the establishment of a penal colony on the Gulf of Car- 

 pentaria, he thought it would be most injudicious, and certainly most distaste- 

 ful to nine-tenths of the Australian colonists. He had experience in the 

 assignment system for several years before its termination, and believed it 

 to be in many respects most iniquitous. Another objection he conceived to be 

 the fact, that within the last five years the colonists had penetrated with 

 flocks and herds from Wide Bay to within 600 miles of the gulf, and that 

 during the next five years they would reach it. He would propose instead, 

 that the neighbourhood of the Victoria River of Stokes should be chosen as 

 the site of a new penal settlement. It was, he believed, fertile, and suited 

 to the growth of cotton. 



Colonel Everest, f.r.g.s., agreed with Mr. Crawfurd in the main in his 

 objections ; but he observed that climate does not depend merely on the dis- 

 tance of a place from the Equator. He would refer to the case of St. John's 

 in Newfoundland, where even oats would not ripen, although it was several 

 degrees nearer the Equator than London. He thought it would be better to 

 determine, before proceeding farther with the question of a penal settlement, 

 whether the elevated land supposed to exist in the vicinity of the gulf was 

 real or imaginary. 



2. Remarks on the Isthmus of Cupica. By Admiral Illingworth. 

 Communicated by Robert Stephenson, Esq., m.p., f.r.g.s. 

 In the commencement of the year 1820, and during the war of Inde- 

 pendence in South America, the then Captain and afterwards Admiral 



