otherwise fine harbours, as it would require two miles of causeway
to connect the best landing place, where water is to be found, with the
mainland.

The average declination of the needle throughout this district I found to
be 1 degree east, the result of many amplitudes and azimuths; there is,
however, in the vicinity of many of the volcanic hills great local
attraction.

Of the climate I can only say that during the five months we remained on
the coast we never experienced the same inconvenience from it that we
frequently have done within the limits of the settled districts of the
colony; the weather was, however, principally fine, and the sky clear
during our stay, only two showers having occurred--one at the latter end
of May and the other in June. The meteorological register kept at Nickol
Bay shows the following results, from observations taken at all hours of
the day and night:--

COLUMN 1: MONTH IN WHICH THERMOMETER READING WAS RECORDED.
COLUMN 2: MAXIMUM.
COLUMN 3: MINIMUM.

May : 80 : 65.
June : 76 : 63.
July : 78 : 56.
August : 80 : 54.
September : 83 : 65.
October : 92 : 70.

Under the peculiar circumstance of the thermometer being placed on a
sandbank in the sun during the hot days in October, it rose to 178
degrees of Fahrenheit, whilst the lowest it ever fell to was up in the
hills, in July, when it was 2 degrees below freezing just before sunrise.

The winds continued to blow almost uninterruptedly from the east and
south-east during the first four months, veering to the south-south-east
and south and occasionally to the north-east. Latterly the wind was
alternately south-east in the morning, and north-west or westerly in the
afternoon; the sky becoming frequently overcast, and every appearance of
the near approach of the rainy season, which it has been observed by
navigators and explorers to do about the beginning of November, and
continue to March.

Amongst the natural productions I would first briefly refer to the beds
of the pearl oysters, as they are likely to become of immediate
commercial importance, considerable numbers having been gathered by the
crew of the Dolphin at their leisure time, the aggregate value of which,
I am told, is between 500 and 600 pounds; besides pearls, one of which
has been valued by competent persons at 25 pounds. The limits of the bed
are as yet undefined, but there is good reason to believe, from the
position of it, that with proper apparatus ships could so