64 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. IV 



what is called the inner passage to India. You must 

 know that the east coast of Australia has running parallel 

 to it at distances of from five miles to seventy or eighty 

 an almost continuous line of coral reefs, the Great Barrier 

 as it is called. Outside this line is the great Pacific, 

 inside is a space varying in width as above, and cut up 

 by little islands and detached reefs. Now to get to 

 India from Sydney, ships must go either inside or outside 

 the Great Barrier. The inside passage has been called 

 the Inner Route in consequence of its desirability for 

 steamers, and our business has been to mark out this 

 Inner Route safely and clearly among the labyrinth-like 

 islands and reefs within the Barrier. And a parlous dull 

 business it was for those who, like myself, had no 

 necessary and constant occupation. Fancy for five 

 mortal months shifting from patch to patch of white sand 

 in latitude from 17 to 10 south, living on salt pork and 

 beef, and seeing no mortal face but our own sweet 

 countenances considerably obscured by the long beard 

 and moustaches with which, partly from laziness and 

 partly from comfort, we had become adorned. I 

 cultivated a peak in Charles I. style, which imparted a 

 remarkably peculiar and triste expression to my sunburnt 

 phiz, heightened by the fact that the aforesaid beard was, 

 I regret to say it, of a very questionable auburn my 

 messmates called it red. 



We convoyed a land expedition as far as the Rockingham 

 Bay in 17 south under a Mr. Kennedy, which was to 

 work its way up to Cape York in 11 south and there 

 meet us. A fine noble fellow poor Kennedy was too. I 

 was a good deal with him at Rockingham Bay, and 

 indeed accompanied him in the exploring trips which he 

 made for some four or five days in order to see how the 

 land lay about him. In fact we got on so well together 

 that he wanted me much to accompany him and join the 

 ship again at Cape York, and if the Service would have 

 permitted of my absence I should certainly have done so. 



