P R E F A C Ei,
Printed b y Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Limited, London and Aylesbury.
N preparing the following pages for the press, I have
endeavoured to give a brief account, divested as much
as possible of technicalities, of the principal points of interest
in Natural Plistory which came under observation during the
wanderings of a surveying ship ; while at the same time I
have done my utmost, at the risk of rendering the narrative
disconnected, to avoid trenching on ground which has been
rendered familiar by the writings of travellers who have visited
the same or similar places. And if in a few in.stances I have
given some rather dry details regarding the appearance and
surroundings of certain zoological specimens, it has been my
intention, by an occasional reference to the more striking forms
of life met with in each locality, to afford some assistance to those
amateurs who, like myself, may desire to avail themselves of the
opportunities afforded by the surveying ships of the British Navy
for performing, although with rude appliances and very few books
of reference, some useful and interesting work.
Large collections of zoological specimens were made, and as
these accumulated on board, they were from time to time sent