Great numbers of kangaroos were also found here, which at the period of our arrival the settlers were just getting into the way of killing.  There are three varieties, of which the largest weighs about 160 pounds.  I must further allude to a most beautiful little opossum which inhabits these parts.  It is about half the size of a full-grown rat, and designated as Belideus ariel.  Its colour and fur greatly resemble the chinchilla, and I have little doubt that the skin is valuable and might be made an article of trade.  This animal has a membrane between the fore and hind paws, which aids it to some extent when leaping from bough to bough.  It is a great enemy to the wild bee, devouring them and their nests; the bees the natives discover by tapping the tree and listening for a buzzing from within.  Those we saw, amounting to nearly a hundred, were about the size of a fly, of a dusky black colour, and strange to say, were hovering round an empty tar-barrel.  They have been unsuccessfully tried in hives at Sydney.

Alligators abound, and one of the marines had a very narrow escape from them.  It appears that one of these monsters who had come out of the water in the night, in search of food, found him sleeping in his hammock, which he had very injudiciously hung up near the water.  The alligator made a snap at his prize; but startled at this frightful interruption of his slumbers, the man dexterously extricated himself out of his blanket, which the unwieldy brute, doubtless enraged at his disappointment, carried off in triumph.  For some time this story was not believed, but when afterwards the huge reptile, on a similar excursion, was shot, a portion of the blanket was found in his stomach with the paw of a favourite spaniel, taken when swimming off the pier head.

Extensive hauls of fish were made on Point Record, amongst which one species, there called salmon, was most excellent eating.

It is unnecessary for a transient visitor to enlarge upon the birds of Port Essington, as in Mr. Gould’s work we have the result of the labours of an individual who spent months collecting in the neighbourhood.

The spot selected for our observations was Government House, where nearly a hundred observations with the sun and stars were made for latitude, the mean result being 11 degrees 22 minutes 21 seconds South, which strange to say, was nearly 15 seconds greater than Captain Stanley and Mr. Tyers’ determination:  this difference to me was quite unaccountable, as the instruments used in the Beagle were before and subsequently, satisfactorily tested at well determined places.  The longitude being affected by the doubtful meridian distance between Sydney and Port Stephens, we can only give an approximate result; and therefore for the sake of the longitudes of those places referred to the meridian of Port Essington, we consider it 132 degrees 12 minutes East of Greenwich.

From the quantity of iron in the rocks at Victoria, it was impossible to get any satisfactory observation for the variation of the compass.  Those obtained varied from 3/4 to 2 1/2 degrees east.