M4 REAR-ADMIRAL F. W. BEECHEY'S ADDRESS. [May 26, 185G. 



especially by MM. Bouchez, Hill, Wilder, Johnson, and May, who 

 have completed a chart which is highly creditable to these yoimg 

 officers. Some useful information has also been obtained respecting 

 the great river Amiir, and of the harbour of Aian and other points 

 in the Sea of Okhotsk. 



China. — A slight break has been made in our ignorance of the 

 Gulfs of Pecheli and Leotung, by the visit of Captain Edward Van- 

 sittart, R.N., who, in H. M. S. ' Bittern,' chased a fleet of Chinese 

 pirates to the head of the Gulf, where the greater part of them were 

 destroyed. In this dashing affair he boldly took his ship into waters 

 hitherto unexplored, obtained numerous soundings, and corrected 

 approximatively the outline of the eastern shore of the Gulf. 



The chart of the island of Palawan and its oif-lying reefs, the 

 result of the elaborate survey of Commander Bate, in the 'Eoyalist,' 

 between the years 1851-5, has just been published at the Admiralty, 

 accompanied by full sailing-directions. We understand that this 

 skilful officer has returned to China to take command of a ship ; 

 may we hope that he will be employed on some service better 

 adapted to his abilities than the usual routine of cruising or carrying 

 despatches. There is "ample room and verge enough" in that 

 region for the labours of several surveyors ; large tracts of coast 

 are yet unexplored, and dangerous reefs yet unexamined ; and of 

 this latter class perhaps none calling more loudly for immediate 

 examination and marking, both by beacons by day and a light by 

 night, than the extensive coral lagoon-reef of the Pratas, barely 

 rising above the level of the sea, lying only 60 leagues to the 

 E.S.E. of our own colony at Hong Kong, and directly bordering on 

 the track of vessels approaching Canton in that direction, either by 

 Dampier Strait or the Gillolo Passage. 



JSfew Zealand. — A general chart of this group, comprising the 

 whole of the recent surveys under Captains Stokes and Drmj, on 

 the scale of y^ of an inch to a mile, or -^oooxi-u- of the natural scale, 

 has recently been published at the Admiralty, together with plans 

 of Cook Strait and Port Nicholson, which are important features of 

 the group, as they include the settlements of Wellington and 

 Nelson. The whole is accompanied by a complete set of sailing- 

 directions, compiled by Captain George Eichards and Mr. F. J. 

 Evans, r.n. (both assistants on the survey), from the various 

 Admiralty surveys which have been carried on since the year 1848, 

 and are now brought to a close by the return to England of the 

 ' Pandora,' Commander Drury, who brings away with him gratifying 



