XX INTRODUCTION. 



this opportunity of more fully expressing my ac- 

 knowledgments. 



In the compilation I have endeavoured to com- 

 bine information useful to the philosopher with re- 

 marks that I trust may prove advantageous to the 

 seaman, and to convey to the general reader the im- 

 pressions produced upon my mind at the moment of 

 each occurrence. How far I have succeeded in ac- 

 quitting myself of the task my duty compelled me 

 to undertake, I must leave to the public to decide, 

 and shall conclude with expressing a hope that my 

 very early entry into the service may be taken in 

 extenuation of any faults they may discover. 



The collections of botanical and other specimens 

 of natural history have been reserved for separate 

 volumes, being far too numerous to form part of an 

 appendix to the present narrative. His Majesty's 

 government having liberally appropriated a sum of 

 money to their publication, I hope, with the assist- 

 ance of several eminent gentlemen, who have kindly 

 and generously offered to describe them, shortly to 

 be able to present them to the public, illustrated by 

 engravings by the first artists. The botany, of which 

 the first number has already been published, is in the 

 hands of Dr. Hooker, professor of Botany, at Glas- 

 gow, who in addition to having devoted the whole 

 of his time to our collection, has borne with the nu- 

 merous difficulties and disappointments which have 

 attended the progress of the publication of this 

 branch of natural history, and my thanks on this 

 account are the more especially due to him in parti- 

 cular. The department which he has so kindly un- 

 dertaken will extend to ten numbers 4to. ; making, 

 in the whole, about 500 pages, and 100 plates of 



