FIRST VOYAGE FROM SYDNEY 173 



and STOKES. She was accompanied by the tender "Bramble" LIEU- 

 TENANT C. B. YULE, and the pinnace, which was named the "Midge" 

 did useful service in the minutice of the surveying operations. 

 Blackwood devoted himself heart and soul to the work, but he was 

 a parsimonious writer. He has left us a short " Abstract of the 

 Voyage," x which is little more than an itinerary, and incomplete 

 at that. The Admiralty charts, as revised and corrected by him, 

 and his " Chart of Endeavour Strait," and Notes in " Sailing 

 Directions," a were apparently his only published contributions to 

 the hydrography of Torres Strait. Fortunately, there was, among 

 the scientific staff, a naturalist, J. BEETE JUKES, whose account of the 

 voyage not only took its place at once as a geological classic, but 

 abounded in that human interest which gives to a book of travel a 

 permanent value apart from its geographical and scientific data. 

 It is to this work, 8 therefore, that we must turn for the greater 

 number of the incidents and observations which made the voyages 

 of the " Fly " memorable. Jukes joined the Geological Survey of 

 Great Britain on his return from Australia, and was subsequently 

 appointed Director of theGeological Survey of Ireland and Professor 

 of Geology in the University of Dublin. 



i. FIRST VOYAGE FROM SYDNEY AND CRUISE IN 



TORRES STRAIT, 1843 



(SEE MAP K.) 



Between igtb May and ist June, 1843, the "Fly" and 

 " Bramble " lay in ROCKINGHAM BAY, off GOULD ISLAND. The 

 passage between " MOUNT HINCHINBROOK " and the mainland, 

 which had been " suspected " by King, was explored by Lieu- 

 tenant Shadwell, Mr. Porcher and Jukes. 



On the mainland, Blackwood explored " a fresh-water stream of 

 considerable size," in the north-western portion of Rockingham Bay, 

 probably the TULLY RIVER. Two others, traced by Lieutenant 

 Ince, Mr. Pym and Jukes, through jungles till they became 

 streamlets of no importance, were probably DALLACHY and WRECK 

 CREEKS. 



The NATIVES of Gould Island commenced by being very friendly, 

 and soon fell into the habit of paddling up to the ships for long talks, 

 punctuated by the occasional receipt of trifling presents. Such 



1 Printed as an Appendix by Jukes. 



2 Complete Sailing Directions for the Various Passages to and through Torres Straits, 

 comprising the Inner Passage by the late A dmiral King, and the Outer Routes by Raine 

 Island, and by the North-Eastern Entrance, by Captain Blackwood, R.N., to which are added 

 the Exact Positions of Outlying Islands, Reefs and other Dangers in the Outer Route to the 

 Straits, as lately determined by Captain Denham, H.M.S. " Herald." Second Edition. 

 Reading & Wellbank, Sydney, 1864.3 ^,^ 



3 Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. " Fly," commanded by Captain F. P. 

 Blackwood, R.N., in Torres Strait, New Guinea and other Islands of the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, during the Years 1842-1846. By J. Beete Jukes, M.A., F.G.S., Naturalist to the 

 Expedition. London, 1847. 



