ravellers since Mr. Eyre wrote upon the subject, is not
consistent with the objects of this work.

(*Footnote. Some of the fowling-sticks of the ancient Egyptians closely
resemble the boomerang in form and appear to have been used in a similar
manner, but I am not aware that anything approaching it has been seen
elsewhere. A specimen which suggested this remark is exhibited in the
British Museum Egyptian Room Case 36, 37 Number 5646.)

(**Footnote. The throwing-stick is completely represented in the Aleutian
Islands (See in Ethnographical Room of British Museum, a specimen in case
16): in shape it differs from the Australian ones (which themselves vary
in different localities) but the principle of construction and mode of
use are precisely the same. In the islands of Tanna and New Caledonia a
contrivance is in use to produce the same effect as the throwing-stick in
propelling the spear; but, apart from other considerations, the nature of
the instrument (a piece of stiff plaited cord six inches long, with an
eye in one end and a knot at the other) is such as quite to preclude the
probability of the Australians having derived their throwing-stick from
this source.)

CHAPTER 2.3.

Death of Captain Stanley.
Sail for England.
Arrive at the Bay of Islands.
Kororareka.
Falls of the Keri-Keri.
Passage across the South Pacific.
Oceanic birds.
Stay at the Falkland Islands.
Settlement of Stanley.
Call at Berkeley Sound.
Lassoing cattle.
Resume our homeward voyage.
Call at Horta in the Azores.
The caldeira of Fayal.
Arrive in England.

Soon after our arrival in Sydney we had to lament the loss of our much
respected commander, who died suddenly on March 13th, while apparently
convalescent from a severe illness contracted during our last
cruise--induced, I understand, by long continued mental anxiety, and the
cares necessarily devolving upon the leader of an expedition such as
ours, of which probably no one who has not been similarly situated can
ever fully comprehend the responsibility. Thus died at the early age of
thirty-nine, but after the successful accomplishment of the chief objects
of his mission, Captain Owen Stanley, who had long before won for himself
an honourable name in that branch of the naval service to which he had
devoted himself, and whose reputation as a surveyor and a man of science
stood deservedly high. Although it would ill become me as a civilian
attached to the expedition to enter upon the se