We experienced more tide here than at any anchorage we had yet occupied during the passage.  From 1 to 5 P.M., it set half an knot an hour to the southward, then changed to North-West by North, increasing its rate to one knot by 10 o’clock, and decreasing it to a quarter of a knot by 2 A.M., when it again set to the South-South-West.  The stream thus appears to set nine hours North-West by North and three South-South-West.  The short duration of the latter, which is the ebb, is caused by the northerly direction of the prevailing current.  This also was the only spot where our fishermen had any success; in a few hours several dozen of a species of small red bream being caught.

Three or four ships passing together would find a secure berth about two miles North-North-East of where the Beagle anchored, where the depth is moderate, with good holding ground.  It has great advantage in this particular over Cairncross, where but one vessel could lie snug, and still greater over Turtle Island, more exposed even than the former with a strong tide, and where vessels ride very uneasily.  Moreover the supposed Boydan, or Number 1 isle, can be left a full hour before daylight, there being nothing in the way to impede a ship’s progress for some miles.  Those who are not desirous of passing the reefs off Wednesday and Hammond Islands, late in the day, with the sun in an unfavourable position, can find a convenient stopping place in Blackwood Bay under the largest York isle, or under the Cape of that name.

CAIRNCROSS ISLAND.

July 12.

We left at an early hour, steering North-North-West 1/2 West for Cairncross Island, which we passed at a distance of half a mile from the eastern side in 16 fathoms.  Its height is seventy-five feet to the tops of the trees, which, according to Mr. Bynoe, who subsequently visited it in the month of September, are dwarf gums.  The tea-tree of the colonists is also found here, in addition to some small bushes.  This island is the resort of a large bright cream-coloured pigeon (Carpophaga leucomela) the ends of the wings being tipped with black, or very dark blue.  Mr. Bynoe found the island quite alive with them; flocks of about twenty or thirty flying continually to and from the main.  They not only resort but breed there, as he found several old nests.  As this bird was not met with in the Beagle on the western coast, we may fairly conclude it only inhabits the eastern and northern; the furthest south it was seen by the officers of H.M.S.  Britomart was latitude 20 degrees.  In addition to these, Mr. Bynoe saw the holes of some small burrowing animals, which are doubtless rats.  On a sandy spit, close to the bushes or scrub, he saw a native encampment of a semicircular form, enclosing an area of about ten yards.  The occupants had but recently left it, as a fire was found burning, and the impression of their feet still fresh in the sand.  It appears that at this season of the year, being the favourable monsoon for ships passing