PREFACE. 



It was originally intended that an account of the 

 Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake should 

 have been undertaken conjointly by the late Captain 

 Owen Stanley and myself, in which case the 

 narrative would have been constructed from the 

 materials afforded by the journals of both, and the 

 necessary remarks upon hydrographical subjects 

 would have been furnished by that officer, whose 

 lamented death in March, 1850, prevented this 

 arrangement from being carried out. Not having 

 had access to Captain Stanley's private journals, I 

 considered myself fortunate, when the Lords Com- 

 missioners of the Admiralty— in addition to sanc- 

 tioning the publication of my account of the Yoj^age 

 in question — directed that every facility should be 

 afforded me in consulting the manuscript charts and 

 other hydrographical results at their disposal, and 

 to Rear-Admiral Sir ¥. Beaufort, C.B., Commander 



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