ts where the
soil is suitable for gardening purposes, thus ensuring a supply of
vegetables during the greater part, perhaps the whole of the year.

(*Footnote. A sample of this ironstone picked up from the surface has
furnished materials for the following remarks, for which I am indebted to
the politeness of Warrington W. Smyth, Esquire, of the Museum of
Practical Geology.

On examining the specimens which you presented to our Museum, I see that
they consist for the most part of the red or anhydrous peroxide of
iron--similar in chemical character to the celebrated haematite ore of
Ulverstone and Whitehaven. It is, however, less rich in iron than would
be inferred from its outward appearance, since the pebbles on being
broken, exhibit interiorly a loose and cellular structure, where grains
of quartz and plates of mica are interspersed with the ore, and of course
reduce its specific gravity and value.

Such an ore, if occurring in great quantity, and at no great distance
from abundant fuel and from a supply of limestone for flux, may prove to
be very valuable; but I should fear that your suggestion of employing the
coral and shells of the coast, for the last-mentioned purpose, might
impair the quality of an iron thus produced, for the phosphoric acid
present in them would give one of the constituents most troublesome to
the iron-master, who wishes to produce a strong and tough iron.)

SAIL FROM CAPE YORK.

On November 2nd we sailed from Cape York on our way to Port Essington and
Sydney, but owing to the prevalence of light airs, chiefly from the
eastward, and calms, we did not reach Booby Island until the 4th, having
passed out of Torres Strait by the Prince of Wales Channel. The Bramble
was left to perform some work in Endeavour Strait* and elsewhere along
the Inner Passage, and after its completion to make the best of her way
to Sydney down the eastern coast of Australia against the trade-wind,
before successfully accomplished by only two other vessels besides
herself. Of course a considerable degree of interest has been excited by
this intended procedure, as the two vessels start under pretty equal
circumstances to reach the same place by two very different routes, of
the merits of one of which comparatively little is known.

(*Footnote. Since the survey of Endeavour Strait in 1844 by Lieutenant
Yule in the Bramble (then attached to the Fly under Captain F.P.
Blackwood) several sunken rocks have been discovered,