efore one
of them had it safely (as it thought) stowed away in its burrow.

The golden plover was plentiful on the island during our visit, and one
afternoon I killed fifteen in about an hour. Two days after the terns'
eggs had been broken we found a small colony of laying birds, and picked
up some dozens of eggs; and had we remained a few days longer, doubtless
a very great number might have been procured. The weed which in the Fly
we used to call spinach (a species of Boerhaavia, apparently B. diffusa)
being abundant here, was at my suggestion collected in large quantity for
the use of the ship's company as a vegetable, but it did not seem to be
generally liked.

December 21st.

Two days ago we left Bramble Cay for Cape Possession in New Guinea, with
a fine breeze from the North-West, and next morning at daylight saw the
land about the Cape on the weather-beam. The wind, however, died away in
the afternoon, but this morning a light north-westerly breeze sprang up,
before which we bore up and were brought in the afternoon to an anchorage
in 11 fathoms, mud, half a mile to leeward of the Pariwara Islands.

ARRIVE AT REDSCAR BAY.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Yule, upon our destination being changed, was
ordered by signal to proceed to Cape Direction and survey the
intermediate space between that and Redscar Bay, in order to connect his
former continuation of the Fly's work with ours, and thus complete the
coastline of the whole of the south-east part of New Guinea.

We remained at this anchorage for upwards of a week, during which a rate
for the chronometers was obtained, and the Bramble returned.

WEATHER DURING WESTERLY MONSOON.

The weather during our stay was very variable and unsettled; rain fell on
several occasions. The wind was usually from the westward, varying
between North-West and South-West, and on one occasion during the night
we had a sudden and very violent squall from the westward, which for a
time was thought to be the beginning of a hurricane, but the gale
moderated very gradually next day. When the wind during the day was light
and from seaward, a land breeze generally came off at night, occasionally
with rain. The cause of this last seems to be the influence exerted upon
the winds here by Mount Owen Stanley and the ranges connected with it,
from which the clouds accumulated during the prevalence of the seabreeze,
are reflected after its subsidence. The low and well wooded district
between the mount