(**Footnote.  Lieutenant Gore had been appointed to H.M.S.  Herald and came down from India, expecting to join her at Sydney:  on his arrival, he found she had left the station; and though he might have spent some months among his friends there, he in the most spirited manner, at once volunteered to join the Beagle, and proved himself throughout the remainder of the voyage of the greatest value, both to the service, and the friend who here seeks to do justice to his worth.  This deserving officer would seem to have an hereditary taste for the duties of a voyage of surveying and discovery, his grandfather having accompanied the renowned circumnavigator, Cook, and his father, the unfortunate Bligh.  Besides Lieutenant Gore’s valuable services in H.M.S.  Beagle, he was 1st Lieutenant of H.M.S.  Volage, during the early part of the Chinese war, and present at the capture of Aden:  he served under Captain Sir George Back in the Polar expedition, and on board H.M.S.  Albion at the battle of Navarin.)

Departure from Woolwich.

On the 9th of June we left Woolwich, in tow of H.M.  Steamer Boxer, furnished with every comfort and necessary (by the Lords of the Admiralty) which our own experience, or the kind interest of Captain Beaufort could suggest.  It had been determined by the Government—­the plan having been suggested by Lieutenant Grey to Lord Glenelg, then Secretary of State for the Colonies—­that, simultaneously with the survey of the seaboard of the great continent of Australia, under Captain Wickham, a party should be employed in inland researches, in order more particularly to solve the problem of the existence of a great river, or water inlet, supposed, upon the authority of Captains King and Dampier, to open out at some point on its western or north-western side, then but partially and imperfectly surveyed.

Lieutenants grey and Lushington’s party.

This expedition was now entrusted to the command of Lieutenant Grey—­since Governor of South Australia—­who was accompanied by Lieutenant, now Captain Lushington; Mr. Walker, Surgeon, and Corporals Coles and Auger, of the Royal Sappers and Miners, who had volunteered their services:  they were to take passage in the Beagle, and to proceed either to the Cape of Good Hope or Swan River, as Lieutenant Grey might ultimately determine.  It was arranged that they should join us at Plymouth, and on our arrival there on the 20th of June—­having called at Portsmouth on our way—­we found them anxiously expecting us.

Here we were busily occupied for some days in rating the chronometers, and testing the various magnetic instruments:  we also during this time swung the ship to try the local attraction, which neither here, nor in any subsequent experiments, exceeded one degree.  As the ship lay in the Sound our observations were made on a stone in the breakwater marked 230/1, from whence we took our chronometric departure; it is about one-third of the length from the east end, and had been used for similar purposes by Captains King and Fitzroy.  We considered it to be west of Greenwich, 0 hours 16 minutes 33 seconds 4t.