The Xovara hauled up in the Fitzro}j Dnj Dock. 49 



It was only the energetic measures taken by Government, 

 by whom provisions were forthwith despatched to the 

 wretched make-shifts of settlements improvised on the spur 

 of the moment, and gave numbers free passages to Sydney 

 and Melbourne, that prevented some serious disaster. A 

 few months later the place so suddenly populous had become 

 once more a despised solitude, and Rockhampton had re- 

 sumed its wonted state of a hamlet consisting of two or 

 three houses. In Sydney, however, the famished crowd 

 seeking after work kept wandering about, thankfully accept- 

 ing the soup which the charity of their fellow-citizens sup- 

 plied free of charge. 



During these various excursions of the scientific stafi", the 

 frigate had, thanks to the kindness of H. E. Sir Wm. Denison, 

 been taken into the Government dry dock at Cockatoo Island 

 in order to facilitate her extensive repairs. The Novara was, 

 as the chief engineer himself allowed, the largest man-of-war 

 which had ever been docked, not merely in Port Jackson, but 

 anywhere in the Eastern hemisphere. 



The Fitzroy dry dock, which had not long been completed, 

 is 300 feet in length (since lengthened another 100 feet), 

 60 feet wide, and will accommodate vessels drawing 19 feet 

 water. In preparing this splendid structure, whicli took 

 eight years to complete, a huge rock 50 feet high was first 

 blasted, the excavation began on the land-side, and on its 

 confpletion a gate opened towards the sea. All being right 

 thus far, a subaqueous mine was sprung by means of large 



"VOL. in. 



