220 PART FROM THE LYNIIER. 



the nearest point, Cape Leveque, bore S.E. 195 

 miles. The Lynher having to pursue a more westerly 

 course, we were of necessity, though reluctantly, 

 obliged to part company this evening : the few 

 evenings we passed together at sea were rendered 

 very pleasant and amusing by the crews singing to 

 each other as the vessels, side by side, slipped 

 stealthily through the moonlit waters. 



April 24. — Still pursuing a W.S.W. course, at 

 the slow rate of forty miles daily, our position at 

 noon was lat. 15° 40' S. long. 120" 41' E. During 

 the day we passed within fifteen miles of the Lively's 

 reef, and from the numbers of terns and other small 

 sea birds, seen for the last three days, there can be 

 little doubt of its whereabouts being known, and 

 that durincr that time we had been in the neigh- 

 bourhood of other reefs still undiscovered. 



April 27. — We experienced the long rolling 

 swell of the Southern Ocean, which, as well as our 

 reckoninor informed us we were roundin"' N.W. 

 Cape; at the same time we began to feel a steady 

 breeze from the S.E. and the northerly current which 

 there prevails. As we were now approaching the 

 usual track of vessels bound from Australia to India, 

 we were not unprepared for the somewhat unusual 

 sight of a strange sail: an object always of some little 

 interest, but which becomes quite an event to those 

 whose duty leads them into the less frequented por- 

 tions of the deep. The increasing trade now carried on 

 between Svdnev and " the gorceous East," has con- 



