68 PRACTICAL RESULTS OF THE SURVEY. 



position and extent of which may be regarded as 

 determined with sufficient accuracy for the purposes 

 of navigation, and the reefs alluded to at p. 288 

 of Vol. 1., which, if they exist at all, and are not 

 merely the Eastern Fields laid down far to the 

 eastward of their true position, must he sought for 

 further to the southward. The shores in question 

 may now be approached with safety, and vessels 

 may run along them either by day or night under 

 the guidance of the chart — without incurring the 

 risk of coming upon unknown reefs, such as doubt- 

 less exist in other parts of the Coral Sea further to 

 the southward — judging from the occasional dis- 

 covery of a new one by some vessel which had 

 got out of the beaten track. Whalers will no doubt 

 find it worth their while — with the characteristic 

 enterprise of their class — to push into those parts of 

 the Coral Sea now first thrown open to them, and, 

 although we have not as yet sufficient grounds to 

 warrant the probability of success in the fishery, 

 yet I may mention that whales were seen on several 

 occasions from both of our vessels. 



This naturally originates the question — to what 

 extent do the Louisiade Archipelago and the south- 

 east coast of New Guinea afford a field for commer- 

 cial enterprise ? "What description of trade can be 

 established there by bartering European goods for 

 the productions of these countries ? Unfortunately 

 at present most of the evidence on this point is of 

 a negative kind. Besides articles of food, such as 



