May 26, 1856] ADMIRALTY SURVEYS. 145 



testimonials from the colony as to the value of his services in those 

 regions, increased by the promptitude with which he made them 

 available to the navigator, by furnishing accurate accounts of the 

 result of his surveys througL the medium of the *New Zealand 

 Gazette.' 



Pacific Ocean. — Capt. Denham still pursues his useful labours in 

 the Western Pacific. Within the past year he has surveyed and 

 fixed the position of Norfolk Island, to which place much interest 

 attaches in consequence of some of the Pitcaim islanders being in 

 course of removal to that spot, as their future dwelling. Pie has 

 determined the position of Conway Reef, an extensive sandbank 

 only 6 feet above the level of high water, and has planted cocoa- 

 nuts upon it, with a view to render it more conspicuous hereafter, 

 a practice which all navigators will do well to follow for the gene- 

 ral benefit of the mariner. On his route to the Fiji Islands, Capt. 

 Denham obtained soundings and brought up bottom from a depth 

 of 1020 fathoms, containing thirty distinct genera of /oramzni/erd, most 

 of which belong to existing forms in the Pacific, though only trace- 

 able as fossils in the northern hemisphere. Plans of Levuka har- 

 bour and island and of the Embau waters in the Fiji group complete 

 his work for the past season. 



Farther to the east, in the North Pacific, Fanning Island has been 

 visited by Capt. Morshead, and its true position found to be in lat. 

 3° 49' N., long. 159° 19', or 32 miles to the westward of that 

 usually assigned to it in our charts^ 



Nova Scotia. — Plans of Halifax harbour and of the coast to the 

 eastward as far as Shut-in-Island, resulting from the surveys of 

 Capt. Bayfield and his party, have been published at the Admiralty 

 during the past year on the respective scales of three inches and one 

 inch to a mile. Their recent labours during the past season have com- 

 prised a detailed survey of the coast and harbours from Cape Canso 

 westward to Country Harbour — a laborious and very creditable work. 



In the Bay of Fundy, Commander Shortland has completed the 

 survey of the Grand Manan' islands at the entrance of the Bay, and 

 a portion of the south-western coast of Nova Scotia. Both the 

 above-named officers are now lending their aid and pointing out the 

 best track for laying the submarine cable that is to connect Cape 

 Pay, the south-west point of Newfoundland, with the island of Cape 

 Breton, a strait only 60 miles in width with a depth of about 200 

 fathoms. When this connexion is made, there will, we believe, be 

 uninterrupted communication by electric telegraph from New Orleans 



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