this state and that in which it grows, on rocks washed by the sea.

4th. After visiting a gang of invalids, employed in breaking stones, I walked to a place called The Cascade, on the north-west side of the Island. A little brook descends from the woody hills, and winds among the grassy ones, bordered, in many places, with copses, and straggling treeferns, till it reaches an open valley, formerly inhabited by settlers, where their old chimneys are still standing, and their orchards have run wild, and have spread Grape Vines, Lemons, Figs, and Guavas, all around. Their Sugar-canes have also become naturalized, and border the streamlet thickly, till it falls over a basaltic rock, about twenty feet high, decorated with ferns, and a variety of other plants. Here the brook is again narrowed by woody hills, and margined by luxuriant plants, of the broad, sedgy-leafed New Zealand Flax, and Water Cress, till it emerges on an open, flat, basaltic promontory, from the very point of which, it falls, about twenty feet, to the sea beach, where it is lost. among the large, rounded, tumbled stones.-Among the Sugar-cane and scrub at this point, a beautiful convolvuluslike plant, Ipomoea cataractæ, is entwined, and exhibits its large, purple flowers, shot with red. It was named from this place, by Bauer, a celebrated botanist, who accompanied one of the earliest navigators of these seas, and whose Flora of Norfolk Island, has lately been published by a person named Endlicher.

Ipomoea carinata, a large plant of the Convolvulus tribe, having white flowers, with long tubes, that open at night, climbs among the trees, in the borders of the woods. Among the bushes there are two pretty species of Passion flower, Disemma adiantifolia and D. Baueriana, with copper-coloured blossoms.

From the Sugar-cane, the old settlers of Norfolk Island succeeded in making molasses, but they failed in obtaining sugar, not being aware, that the addition of a little lime, or potash, was needful to make it crystallize. They also distilled rum, and injured themselves greatly by drinking it; but they imagined the pernicious effects of the rum were

produced by the lead of the worms, used in the distillation. They never seemed to dream, that they were suffering from the deleterious property of the "balmy spirit of the cane;" under which, many of them sank prematurely to the grave; and others became so enthralled, that the love of strong drink has gone with them, as a curse, into other lands, blighting their prospects of temporal prosperity, and bringing them hopeless and unhonoured to the end of their days.

Near the foot of the Cascade, there is a rock, forming a natural jetty, from which boats are hauled up out of the sea, when they are unable to land on the south side of the island.

5th. We visited the congregation of free and military Protestants, to which the Commandant's Clerk read the prayers of the Episcopal Church, and a sermon. The sermon. was a very pointed one, on 2 Peter iii. 3. At the conclusion, my dear companion and myself, again availed ourselves of the opportunity afforded us, to bear a plain testimony to the necessity of becoming the servants of Christ, in order to obtain salvation, and to the impossibility of being saved whilst remaining servants of the devil, through sin. We also directed the attention of the congregation, to the convictions of the Spirit of Truth, making sin manifest in the conscience, as the drawing of the Father leading to the Son, in order that mankind may obtain repentance, and remission of sins through him, and know, through him, a capacity wrought in them, to will and to do the good pleasure of God.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Norfolk Island.-Cave.-Remarkable Shrubs.--Mount Pitt.-Group of Islands. -Capture of a Parrot.-Marrattia.-Petty Sessions.-Marine Animals.Tree-ferns.-Animals.-Visit of Officers to Phillip Island.-Guavas.-True Church. Return of Officers.-Wild-boar.-Runaway Prisoner.-Religious Interviews.-Luminous Fungus.-Prisoner's History.-Tidings. -Relapses.Parting Opportunities.-Penitent Prisoners.-Departure.-Prisoners Letters.

-Voyage.-Storm.-Lord Howes Island.-Portuguese Man-of-War.—Arrival at Sydney.-Disorderly Soldiers.

4th mo. 6th. WE went to see a singular little cave, not far from the Commandant's house. In this place, two men who absconded, a few months since, concealed themselves in the day-time, and for a considerable period, eluded detection. The cave is in the rugged limestone, that forms two low hills, the flat, and the reef on the south of the Island. Nepean Island, and a rock that resembles a ship under sail, off the north of Phillip Island, are of the same formation of limestone. The cave was near to a lime-kiln, and was concealed by a stone, drawn over its mouth. The Sandstone, adjoining this limestone, is very hard and sonorous: it is valued for making filtering stones.

The rocky shore of this Island is accessible from the land, in some places, on the south-west. In a few of the valleys, near the sea, in this direction Euphorbia obliqua, a remarkable shrub, forms copses, attaining, when shaded by trees, to 15 feet in height, and 2 feet in circumference. Here also, as well as in most of the other shady woods throughout the island, Botryodendron latifolium, a shrub of singular form, allied to the Ivy, but of a very different appearance, prevails. Its figure may be compared to that of a long-leaved cabbage, mounted on a broom-stick. Its stem is about five feet high,

and five inches round; its largest leaves are about two feet long, and one foot broad. The prisoners in the out-stations, wrap their bread in these leaves, and bake it in the ashes. The fruit is a dense cluster, of greenish, purple berries, not edible, produced in the centre of the crown of leaves.

8th. In company with Major Anderson, and the military surgeon, we ascended Mount Pitt. The vegetation is of the same general character, as on other parts of the north of the Island. Lemon trees grow at the very top. On the northern ascent, a Pine was measured, 29 feet in circumference, and a Norfolk Island Bread-fruit, Cordyline australis, 2 feet 9 inches. The last, sometimes attains 20 feet in height: it branches from within a few feet of the ground, and forms several heads, with flag-like leaves, and long, branched spikes of greenish, star flowers, succeeded by whitish, or bluish-purple berries, that are eaten by parrots. It often forms a striking object, where a woody valley runs out into grass, growing at the extreme margin of the wood.

Niphobolus serpens and Polypodium tenellum, two climbing ferns, ascend the trunks of trees, in the northern portion of the Island; and the Norfolk Island Pepper, Piper psittacorum, which produces a yellow, pulpy, pendent, cylindrical fruit, of a spicy, sweetish taste, is every where plentiful, in the woods. It rises, with a few, jointed, cane-like, green stems, to from four to ten feet high, bearing large, heart-shaped leaves.

From the top of Mount Pitt, by ascending a tree, we could see the whole circuit of the Island, which approaches a triangle in form; it is rendered very beautiful, by the variety of hill and dale, wood and open land. land. Nepean and Phillip Island are also included in the view; the former being very small, and rising only a few feet out of the ocean, and the latter, about five miles in circumference, steep and lofty, and varied by thick wood, and bare, red peaks. These three islands form the whole of this remote group. Norfolk Island is the only one inhabited.

9th. The gangs being too busily occupied in harvesting Maize, to allow us to have interviews with them, I made another excursion into the bush, having as guide, a prisoner

who was sent here, from New South Wales, for bush-ranging, or in other words, for breaking away from the restraint of penal discipline, and becoming a robber. This course of life he informed me, he should never have taken to, had he not fallen into the hands of a bad master. In the course of our walk, one of the Orange-faced, Green Parrots, alighted on a bush near us. The prisoner broke a long stick, so near to the bird, that I expected it would fly away at the noise, but it sat still; with a shoe-string, he made a noose, which he fastened to the end of the stick; this he reached to the bird. After a few unsuccessful attempts, which only occasioned the parrot to move a little from its place, he passed the noose over its head, and captured it.-The most remarkable object that arrested our attention was Marattia elegans, a fern of great beauty, having fronds 14 feet in length, 7 feet of which were destitute of branches; of these, it had 8 pair, which were again branched, and clothed with leaflets, five inches long, and three-quarters of an inch broad.

13th. The petty sessions were held: they occur twice a week. Several prisoners received reprimands, or sentence to sleep in Jail, to solitary confinement, or to wear chains, for neglect of work, or for insolence to overseers. A circumstance of improper conduct in a military officer, lately removed from the Island, came to light, in the examination of a prisoner, such as shewed the pernicious effects of the bad example, by which the penal discipline is too often let down. It is awful to see the unmoved hardness with which prisoners make oath, most solemnly, to the truth of what they state, on both sides, when it is obvious, that on one side there must be perjury. Truly oaths are insufficient to secure correct testimony, where the moral standard of truth is low; where it is gone, they only add to crime; and where this standard is properly maintained, they are useless, yea being yea, and nay, nay.

The tide being low in the afternoon, I walked among the rocks, and detached a few pieces of Coral, of different sorts. Some species of Alcyonium, that are met with here, so much resemble the Corals, that it is difficult to distinguish them, except by the former being soft. Some long-spined