6 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
occasion and took infinite interest ever afterwards in our life: 
and resources. But yet with all his great gifts and profound’ 
knowledge he is hardly quite as interesting to us as one who 
possessed neither his great gifts nor his magnificent oppor- 
tunities. Daniel Southwell was one of ourselves, and when. 
I, say that I mean that he was an amateur naturalist, cor- 
responding to so many of our own members. He was a mate 
in H.M.S. Sirius with the First Fleet, and recorded his im- 
pressions in a diary and letters, which are carefully preserved 
in the British Museum. He entered the Sirius as a midship- . 
man, but was appointed to a mate’s position when Mr. Sealey: 
remained at Rio Janeiro, and much to his disappointment was. 
given charge of the Look-out Station at South Head when: 
the First Fleet moved into Port Jackson. He was assured: 
afterwards by Captain Phillip that it was given him as a cons 
pliment, and appears to have been gratified by the fact. On 
the great southern sentinel of our. port always stands, in my: 
imagination, the lonely watcher, the first in all our history, 
around: him and above the gathered beauty of the sea and} 
stars, and falling: from his feet in many curving lines of 
gracious beauty the splendour of our harbour in its primeval 
glory. He seems so typical of intelligent youth, standing 
there with parted lips and wide open eyes gazing into the 
wonders about him. How.interested he was on the life of the 
bush and all its variety, and how intelligently he speaks of it 
all is evidenced in his journal. Of the harbour he says, 
“Nothing can be.conceived more picturesque than the appaar- 
ance of the country while running up this extraordinary har- 
bour.’’ His description of the quadrupeds is specially interest- 
ing. ‘‘Most quads of the place are handy with their paws, 
and, though not to be pronounced of the monkey kind, ara 
monkeyish in their manners, and were it not that we meet 
with no regular gent of that class should suspect that there 
was a distinct gradation as links in the chain which naturalists 
affirm is, insensibly continued from one order to another.’ « 
Remember that this was in the year 1788, the parts of she 
journal from which I quote are from the 20th January to 
29th May, 1788. Charles Darwin was not born till 10 years 
after that date Here Southwell enunciates a principle of de- 
velopment. He has been thinking and’ reading, too, for ne 
was manifestly well acquainted with the advanced: scientific 
thought of his day. Darwin, who was to bring to a head these 
theories wandering in the minds of men, was not yet born’. 
Linnaeus was not long dead, and Gilbert White, author of 
“The Natural History of Selborne,’’ was still alive. The first 
collection of aboriginal words appears in his journal, and’ his 
descriptions of fish, insects, and plants are evidence of closa 
observation, of varied- knowledge; and wide experience for so. 
young a man. 
