CHAPTER IV 

 1848-1850 



The whole cruise of the Rattlesnake lasted almost pre- 

 cisely four years, her stay in Australian waters nearly three. 

 Of this time altogether eleven months were spent at Sydney, 

 namely, July 16 to October 11, 1847; January 14 to Feb- 

 ruary 2, and March 9 to April 29, 1848; January 24 to 

 May 8, 1849 ; and February 14 to May 2, 1850. The three 

 months of the first northern cruise were spent in the survey 

 of the Inshore Passage — the passage, that is, within the 

 Great Barrier Reef for ships proceeding from India to Syd- 

 ney. In 1848, while waiting for the right season to visit 

 Torres Straits, a short cruise was made in February and 

 March, to inspect the lighthouses in Bass' Straits. It was 

 on this occasion that Huxley visited Melbourne, then an 

 insignificant town, before the discovery of gold had brought 

 a rush of immigrants. 



The second northern cruise of 1848, which lasted nine 

 months, had for its object the completion of the survey of 

 the Inner Passage as far as New Guinea and the adjoining 

 archipelago. The third cruise in 1849-50 again lasted nine 

 months, and continued the survey in Torres Straits, the 

 Louisiade archipelago, and the south-eastern part of New 

 Guinea. After this the original plan was to make a fourth 

 cruise, filling up the charts of the Inner Passage on the 

 east coast, and surveying the straits of Alass between 

 Lombok and Sumbawa in the Malay Archipelago; then, 

 instead of returning to Sydney, to proceed to Singa- 

 pore and so home by the Cape. But these plans were 

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