TONGATABOO. 39 



avoid coming in contact with them, for their bite has often proved 

 fatal. Instances are known in Sydney of persons who have been 

 bitten, and have died in a few hours. An eminent physician of 

 Sydney, on being asked the treatment in case of a bite, replied: "To 

 bandage the affected part as soon as possible, cut it out, and, as 

 soon as preparations can be made, amputate the limb !" These 

 venomous snakes frequently crawl into houses near the woods, and 

 persons have been bitten whilst sitting at their doors in the evening. 

 A lady, living on the north shore, near the residence of the Ame- 

 rican consul, was sitting playing on the piano, when, hearing some 

 rustling noise, suddenly looked around, and discovered a diamond- 

 snake only a short distance from her; she screamed aloud and jumped 

 on the music-stool ; a servant soon came to the rescue, and killed the 

 intruder. Instances occur repeatedly of these snakes infesting the 

 houses, and so common are they, that if a person is stung, it is at 

 once supposed to be by a snake. The effects of the bite, if not fatal, 

 are said to produce partial blindness. 



On the 30th of March they left Sydney, and passed the Heads of 

 Port Jackson on the same afternoon. They had at first light winds, 

 and made but little progress. When about seventy miles from the 

 coast, in latitude 33£° S., they experienced a change of four degrees in 

 the temperature of the sea ; and on the 3d of April, they found they had 

 been set thirty miles to the southward during the day. On the 5th, 

 the temperature again fell to 72°, with an easterly current. Several 

 English vessels were seen cruising for whales in latitude 28° S., 

 longitude 157° E. The winds continued contrary and light. On 

 the 9th, in longitude 159° 43' E., latitude 26° S., an opportunity 

 occurred for trying the deep-sea temperature. At eight hundred and 

 thirty fathoms below the surface, the temperature had decreased to 

 46°, that of the surface being 76° ; and the current was found setting 

 east-by-south half a mile per hour. The next day, in longitude 160° 

 E., latitude 25° 40' S., the experiments were repeated, at different 

 depths; the results will be found in Appendix I. 



The current was now found setting to the south-southwest, at the 

 rate of half a mile per hour. 



On the 18th they again attempted to get a deep-sea cast, and had 

 nineteen hundred fathoms of line out; in hauling in the line it parted, 

 and nearly seventeen hundred fathoms of it was lost, besides the only 

 self-registering thermometer we had left in the squadron, which put 

 a stop to our experiments. They had now several days of light 



