J48 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



miles distant, more or less, and then, by the old method of taking 

 their bearings by compass, made oiU their latitudes and longitudes 

 with wonderful accuracy, not only in degrees, but even down to 

 minutes and seconds. Was the day hazy, he went through the 

 same process of guessing at his data, and then drawing his con- 

 clusions with mathematical precision. Fortunately, the natives 

 boarded him and gave him the names of the islands. In his 

 " Tableau des Positions,^^ one hundred and ten islands of the two 

 hundred which this group, in all probability, contains, are ihus 

 conspicuously laid down ; alihough the whole time, in daylight, 

 consumed in making these mighty acquisitions to hydrographical 

 knowledge gives" only an average of two hours for the examina- 

 tion of each member of the cluster ! Wonderful results ! Beau- 

 tiful model for the exploring expedition. Sir, this group, with all 

 its riches in natural history, still remains to be examined. The 

 plan of D'Urville's voyage, and the force at his disposal, were alike 

 unsuited to the task ; and what he accomplished, for all that it is 

 worth to navigation, had almost as well remained undone. Three 

 months is the shortest period that the expedition, wiili all its force, 

 should remain in this archipelago ! 



As regards botany, your favourite science, the researches made 

 during the voyages of the Astrolabe were, in like manner, exceed- 

 ingly superficial. The only collections worthy of notice at all 

 were those made at New-Zealand and Ascension ; and even at 

 those places few new plants were discovered. Three hundred 

 and twenty species belonging to New-Zealand were known pre- 

 vious to D'Urville's visit there ; and on that occasion only one hun- 

 dred and ninety species were obtained, three tenths of which had 

 been seen and described in the voyages of Captain Cook by Sir 

 Joseph Banks, Dr. Sohmder, Sparmann, and the Forsters, and in 

 those of Vancouver, by Mr. Menzies. 



M. Achillc Richard, who prepared the botany of the voyage for 

 publication, could not have had a very exalted opinion of the la- 

 bours of D'Urville and M. Lesson in this department, for he has 

 not confined himself to their collection, but has compiled a general 

 Flora of New-Zealand, by copying the description of all the plants 

 found there, from Cook's first voyage to tlie present time. In this 

 branch, as in most others, your vaunted model was far inferior to 

 the voyages of Freycinet and Duperrey ; indeed, the relative value 



