John Lort Stokes

“ The time indeed, if we may judge from past experience, seems not far distant when the stranger, on approaching the shores of Western Australia, and asking who erected that lighthouse to guide him in safety to the shore, will be told it was the work of a people that once were and are now no longer. ”

“ It trends east and west for seventeen miles, and is in width about six. For a volcanic island its features are not very remarkable; the highest part is a peak or excrescence, 1700 feet high, rising towards the eastern end out of a rather level ridge.
On the morning of the 29th, the high land of the Mauritius was seen breaking through the mass of clouds. Passing round the north end of the island, in the evening we reached Port Louis, where we found a French man-of-war that had just brought in the crew of a vessel foundered at sea. ”

“ As in the Royal Engineers, a great deal of the superior talent of the officers might be better bestowed, by abandoning to the petty officers the rougher part of the surveying work, in which calculation is not required. ”

“ Alexander Thom, of H.M. 86th Regiment, whose valuable observations have been laid before the public, in a work called, "An Inquiry into the Nature and Course of Storms"; a volume that embraces many important considerations for seamen, to whom, indeed, and to the ship-owner, Mr. Thom, by his scientific investigations, has proved himself a true friend.
It is curious that military men should have been the first to study the causes of hurricanes, and to tell sailors how to avoid their effects ”

“ There are about two thousand acres of available land in the whole island. The average number of native convicts is about seventeen, and the expense of the whole establishment to Government is about £200 per annum ”

“ Respecting deep-sea soundings, there are some sceptical persons who, in consequence of the bottom not being brought up from the great depths reported to have been found, are inclined to doubt that soundings were actually obtained on those occasions. ”

“ From the result of others we had obtained at different times off the south coast of Tasmania, it appears that soundings of a moderate depth extend out only a short distance, and that a ship in 60 fathoms will be within ten miles of the land. ”

“ I had anticipated that I should here be enabled to make some important additions to the notices of hurricanes that have occasionally appeared in this work; and certainly ample opportunity now presented itself. ”

“ For this purpose, a kind of instruction might be imparted, which that class of men, if encouraged by extra pay, is capable of receiving, particularly those who have had the advantage of a Greenwich education. ”