APPENDIX. 259 



by some considerable river, you are hereby authorized, 

 when engaged on the Barrier Reef in that latitude, to 

 devote a week or two to the examination of that district. 



One of the most essential parts of your duty will be the 

 compilation of sailing directions for the navigation of the 

 whole space which you are instructed to survey ; as well as 

 particular instructions for avoiding the dangers with which 

 it is replete; for taking the several channels you may 

 recommend ; and for entering the various ports or roads 

 which you may visit — and those directions should include 

 every circumstance that may be of use to the mariner, 

 though not purely hydrographic ; for instance, the places 

 where vessels may refuge after any serious disaster at sea, 

 where spars may be cut, when and how water, wood, and 

 other necessaries may be procured ; and, in short, the various 

 resources which each place may afford. 



The effects of seasons, climates, and indigenous articles 

 of food on the health of the crew, the peculiar products of 

 the country, and the disposition of the inhabitants will also 

 be subjects of great interest, as well as many others, which 

 will readily occur to every officer who is zealous in obtaining, 

 and desirous of benefiting mankind by communicating use- 

 ful information. 



The most approved and costly instruments have been 

 supplied to you for the purpose of pursuing those researches 

 in magnetism, which have excited so much interest in 

 Europe, and so much activity in all quarters of the world. 

 And as certain of your officers have been specially in- 

 structed in the mode of observing, you will take care to 

 give them every fair opportunity of adding their contri- 

 butions to this branch of science ; whenever it may not 

 cause any delay in the main objects of the expedition. You 

 will also contrive, if possible, that the movements of her 

 Majesty's ship may be so arranged as to be in some port 



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