08 PRACTICAL RESULTS OF THE SURVEY. 



position and extent of which may be reg-arded as 

 determined with sufficient accuracy for the purposes 

 of navigation^ and the reefs alluded to at p. 288 

 of Yol. I.^ which; if they exist at all^ and are not 

 merely the Eastern Fields laid down far to the 

 eastward of their true position^ must be soug'ht for 

 further to the southward. The shores in question 

 may now be approached with safety^ and vessels 

 may run along- them either by day or nig'ht under 

 the g'uidance of the chart — without incurring* the 

 risk of coming- upon unknown reefs, such as doubt- 

 less exist in other parts of the Coral Sea further to 

 the southward — judging* from the occasional dis- 

 cover}^ of a new one by some vessel which had 

 got out of the beaten track. Whalers will no doubt 

 find it worth their while — with the characteristic 

 enterprise of their class — to push into those parts of 

 the Coral Sea now first thrown open to them, and, 

 althoug'h we have not as yet sufficient g-rounds to 

 warrant the probability of success in the fishery, 

 yet I may mention that whales were seen on several 

 occasions from both of our vessels. 



This naturally orig-inates the question — to what 

 extent do the Louisiade Archipelag'o and the south- 

 east coast of New Guinea afford a field for commer- 

 cial enterprise ? What description of trade can be 

 established there by bartering- European goods for 

 the productions of these countries ? Unfortunately 

 at present most of the evidence on this point is of 

 a negative kind. Besides articles of food, such as 



