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are about two miles and a half off. The propriety of placing a lighthouse oh this group has been under consideration. These islands are composed of coarse granite, covered with a rich peaty soil strongly impregnated with guano. They are hardly fit for settlement, but the time may come when it may be worth while to transport the soil, which, if hardly equal to guano, might still make a very rich top-dressing for exhausted soils. The Victoria penguin breeds here in large numbers, and so does the mutton-bird, and there used to be a fur-seal rookery, but we only saw one or two. There is a small colony of sea-lions. Auckland Islands. —In our voyage from the Snares to the Auckland Islands we sounded twice —at twenty-two miles from the former, where we got 87 fathoms (only 13 more than the depth of our anchorage the night before), coral bottom ; the second time we got 196 fathoms, at sixty-six miles from the Auckland Islands. The information thus gained tends to confirm the opinion that a bank of no great depth extends well to the southward of New Zealand. The Auckland Islands are a most interesting group. We first visited Enderby Island, at the north-east extremity, a Government reserve of about 1,200 acres flat tableland, for the most part 20ft. or 30ft. above the sea, covered with scrub and coarse grass. Here we found some sea-lions and a few silver-gray rabbits. We then visited Lawrie Harbour, or Sarah's Bosom. As it was blowing very hard we sought the more commodious anchorage of Norman Inlet (so named in the colonial chart) for the night. As at this place is situated one of the depots for shipwrecked seamen, and as it is so notified to mariners, I feel it is advisable to call attention to the important fact, that in the Admiralty chart this same inlet is named Musgrave Inlet, while Norman Inlet is marked as situated considerably to the northward. This might mislead castaways, and thus cause disappointment and hardship. Our next anchorage was off " Fairchild's Garden," in Carnley Harbour. In this magnificent sheet of water, which lies between the main island and Adam's Island, we anchored in no less than five different secure anchorages while waiting for the furious gales which prevailed to subside. I was much struck by the capabilities of these islands, and by the beauty of the scenery. The height of the islands are nowhere more than 2,000 ft., and they are bare of scrub, on the average, about 200 ft. or 300 ft. from the beach. The scrub is not large, but makes excellent fuel. Above the scrub there is everywhere abundance of coarse grass, interspersed with tussocks, well adapted for sheep until English grass is introduced. There are in all about 140,000 acres of land, which has lately been let in three large runs. The east coast of the islands abounds in secure anchorages, and there is everywhere plenty of water. The climate is believed to be favourable for settlement. We saw sea-lions, albatrosses, Eoyal and Victoria penguins, mutton-birds, wingless duck, snipe, and other birds, and also a few sheep and goats, which were Landed on the island by Captain Fairchild, of the Government vessel "Hinemoa," a year or two ago. From the number of carcases of sea-lions on the beach there has been evidently a considerable slaughter of them lately. Campbell Island. —On leaving the Auckland Islands, after more than one fruitless attempt to put to sea, we attempted to reach the Macquarrie Islands, which are under the jurisdiction of Tasmania, where sea-elephants and the king penguin are to be found; but we encountered so much wind and sea that after eighteen hours we were obliged to bear up for the Campbell Islands, which bear E.S.E. from the Aucklands, distant 145 miles. We ran before a tempestuous sea, and were glad to get under the shelter of the main island. This, like the group we have just left, is well fitted for occupation, and has just been let as one large run, amounting in all to 28,000 acres. The land is, if anything, superior to that in the Auckland Islands; like them, this island is of volcanic origin, and is covered with a peaty soil, well grassed, with tussocks here and there. There is little or no scrub, but a heath covers the land for some little distance from the beach, growing as high as Bft. to 10ft. in sheltered places, with stems as thick as a man's wrist. But the peat would form excellent fuel. Like the Aucklands, the land is of volcanic formation. Its coasts are very fine and bold, and the rocks on it and the outlying islets are of the most fantastic forms. The east side contains two most excellent harbours, well sheltered from every quarter, and on the west coast is another, fairly secure from most winds. The scenery is