100 
FROM SYDNEY TO TORRES STRAIT 
Archipelago, namely, in the Banda Sea, the Sea of Celebes, the Sulu Sea, and the China 
Sea. But an illustration of the same fact occurs nearer home. The Mediterranean Sea is 
separated from the Atlantic by a submarine elevation extending, at an average depth of about 
ioo fathoms, from Cape Spartel in Morocco to Cape Trafalgar in Spain ; and the observations 
made on board H.M.S. “ Porcupine,” in 1870, show that the temperature of the Mediterranean 
decreases down to a depth of about 100 fathoms, and then remains stationary, at about 
13 0 C., between that depth and the bottom—the colder depths of the Atlantic being cut off from 
the basin of the Mediterranean by the above-mentioned ridge. 
At the end of a twelve days’ cruise over the blue waters of the Melanesian Sea, only at 
rare intervals ploughed by the keel of merchant-vessel or man-of-war, we sighted, a mere 
speck upon the level horizon, the beacon of Raine Island, 
rising from the edge of that Great Barrier Reef which, 
over a length of 900 miles, skirts the east coast of 
Australia from Cape Townshend to Cape York. On a 
point of this reef, about 500 miles to the southward of Raine Island, Captain Cook nearly 
lost his ship, the “ Endeavour,” on the 10th of June, 1770. Cape Tribulation and the 
Endeavour River, so named by Cook, mark the scene of this disaster. 
The weather not favouring the difficult task of navigation which lay before us, we 
remained until next day in the vicinity of Raine Island. On closer inspection we found this 
little spot—barely a quarter of a mile long and rising but a few feet above the waves—in 
possession of sea-birds. Their nests literally covered the ground, and “ the winged air” was 
“ darked with plumes.” On the following day, the 1st of September, favoured by sunshine and 
a good breeze, we made rapid progress along the 
Australian shore, which here has a barren and inhospitable 
aspect, and about sunset ELM.S. “ Challenger ” was safely 
anchored in the strait between Albany Island and the 
settlement of Somerset, near Cape York. 
The first objects that attracted our attention in 
passing up the strait were a number of brick-coloured, 
irregularly-shaped, conical pinnacles, which studded the 
slopes on our left. These were ant-hills, the largest 
rising to a height of twelve feet from the ground. We 
were soon to learn by painful experience that Australian 
Somerset is the favourite abode of this pattern of patient 
industry, and, as a trifling matter often usurps a larger 
share of attention than it deserves, the peninsula of Cape 
York will always be associated in our memories with the 
ants which covered our garments after the first few steps 
in the bush, and whose sting seemed doubly acute beneath the rays of a blazing sun. The 
ground for a considerable distance round these hills is strewn with large leaves and their 
GIGANTIC ANT-HILL, SOMERSET. 
