If at Port Dalrymple it should so happen that you can wait on Sir John Franklin, it is probable that he will detach Lieutenant Burnett to cooperate with you in the survey of Bass Strait, and it is certain that the Governor will do everything in his power to assist your labours. At Sydney you will have the advantage of seeing Captain P.P. King, whose long experience of all those coasts, as well as of the seasons, and of the manner of dealing with the inhabitants, will be of the utmost use to you; and whose zeal for the King's service, and whose love of science, will lead him to do everything possible to promote your views. If Mr. Cunningham, the Government Botanist, be there, he also will, I am convinced, eagerly communicate to you and your officers everything which may be serviceable in the pursuits connected with Natural History. At Swan River, at Port Dalrymple, and at Sydney, it may, perhaps, be possible for you to hire, at a low rate, some person acquainted with the dialects of the natives, which you are subsequently to visit, and with whom it will be so essential to be on friendly terms. Such a person will greatly assist in that object; but you will keep him on board no longer than absolutely necessary, and you will take care to provide for his return if the Beagle should not be able to carry him back. GENERAL INFORMATION. In such an extensive and distant survey, numerous subjects of inquiry, though not strictly nautical, will suggest themselves to your active mind; and though, from your transient stay at any other place, you will often experience the mortification of leaving them incomplete, yet that should not discourage you in the collection of every useful fact within your reach. Your example in this respect will stimulate the efforts of the younger officers under your command, and through them may even have a beneficial influence on the future character of the navy. It has been suggested by some geologists, that the coral insect, instead of raising its superstructure directly from the bottom of the sea, works only on the summits of submarine mountains, which have been projected upwards by volcanic action. They account, therefore, for the basin-like form so generally observed in coral islands, by supposing that they exist on the circular lip of extinct volcanic craters; and as much of your work will lie among islands and cays of coral formation, you should collect every fact which can throw any light on the subject.