QUICK PASSAGE, Liverpool.-One of the most remarkable passages ever made across the Atlantic under sail only has been accomplished by the new American ship Typhoon. She sailed from Portsmouth N.H., U.S., for Liverpool on her trial trip, coming over in ballast only, and entered the Mersey, completing the passage in the extraordinary short time of 14 days from port to port.

METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER.

Kept at Croom's Hill, Greenwich, by Mr. W. Rogerson, of the Royal Observatory. From the 21st of March, to the 20th of April, 1851.

TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS.-We have drawn, in this number, largely on the consideration of our correspondents, in reserving for our next, much that has given place to the important paper on Labrador. The proceedings at Southampton, we much desire to record, and may yet preserve the cream of them. Our friend S. J., we shall have recourse to in our next, as well as, endeavour to make up for some secondary matter which has been so unceremoniously treated in this; charts published &c., now unavoidably omitted.

London:-Hunt, Frinter, Church Street, Edgware Road.

CRUIZE OF H.M.S. ACHERON ON THE COAST OF NEW ZEALAND.

LEAVING Port Nicholson on the evening of February 18th, the following morning we closed with the land thirty-one miles S. 31° W. of Cape Campbell, at a projection called Wai-papa-papa Point, the lowest and seaward extreme of an underfeature thrown off from the Great Kikora, a mountain range of 9,700 feet, the loftiest in New Zealand. On the south side of this point is a valley traversed by a river, which Captain Cook mistook for a harbour, and indeed from an eastern offing it so much resembles one, that it is not at all surprising he should have been deceived.

Pursuing a close examination of the coast, we found an anchorage the same evening on the south side of a low hummocky tongue of land, (330 feet high,) called after the mountains just mentioned, the name of which in Maori, signifies, crayfish; abundance of this favorite native food being found there. A bay on the northern side also affords anchorage and shelter from south-easterly winds, so that with these advantages, vessels may occupy this, the only anchorage between Banks Peninsula and Cook Strait in any weather. Its importance is further augmented by the existence there of a fertile, lightly timbered valley, offering a desirable site for a settlement, and communicating with the great plains northwards of the Canterbury Association's territory. The aspect of this singular looking point, which lies fifty-one miles S. 33° W. of Cook Strait entrance, is strongly contrasted with the rugged, abrupt character of the coast, an irregularity of feature prevailing beneath the water, ten miles southwards of Kikora Point where there is a depth of NO. 6.-VOL. XX.

20

A few miles farther brought us

184 fathoms two miles from the shore. on the flat or great sloping sandy bank that stretches away southwards across Pegasus Bay, and renders it easy to approach by night or in foggy weather, the northern anchorages of Banks Promontory.

in

After dark, we anchored in Cooper Bay off its newly created Port Town, where a few lights and the hum of human voices broke the solitude and silence we had been accustomed to find there. The morning's light shewed a good sized village of wooden dwellings which had sprung up since our former visit, an interval of only a few months. From thence, a tolerably broad and level road cut with much engineering skill in the mountain slope overhanging Port Cooper, and carried through a gorge discovered in course of the Acheron's previous survey, will when finished, give easy access to the plains. Much pains have been bestowed on the construction of this road, and where walls were found necessary, building them there was a degree of rivalry between the European and Maori labourers; the latter of course learned all they knew of masonry from carefully observing the method adopted by the Englishmen, yet short and unfavorable as were their opportunities, little difference can be discovered in the execution of their work, a remarkable proof of that aptitude for imitation and improvement by which the natives are distinguished. I was much pleased to find that a convenient landing-place had been considered to rank among the first necessities of the embryo town, and that Littleton whilst yet but a collection of huts, has the advantage of a strong well built jetty.

Rating the chronometers detained us five days, during which we experienced a severe gale from the south-east on the 23rd, for which the barometer fell to 29-25, to 29.50 for another from south on the 26th, which drove us into Akaroa.

Sailing thence on the 1st of March, we reached Otago the following evening. As the weather proved too foggy to allow of our examining the coast line, between those ports, whilst delayed for observations and coaling, additions were made to our plan of that estuary and the bar re-sounded. One or two knolls have been thrown up, but the channel remains as before with rather an increase of depth.

The settlement is steadily advancing. Coal has been recently discovered in the Saddle Hill, so named by Cook, about eight miles from Dun Edin; some of which Capt. Cargill undertook to have ready for trial in the Acheron.

On the afternoon of the 15th, we left Otago, for Foveaux Strait, having secured the assistance of an European and Maori pilot for a slight remuneration. After passing Cape Saunders, a northerly current of a knot an hour carried us into 13 fathoms water within two and a half miles of the shore, ten miles north of Nuggett Point, the next headland south of Otago, easily recognized from its being fronted by a group of high sugar-loaf rocks.

Wild surfwashed headlands, broken occasionally by sandy bays, are its remarkable features, trending S. 54° W. 17 miles, and S. 84° W. thirty miles, and terminating at the southern extreme in a low shingly point not without lurking danger, from the great distance the sea breaks

off it, without any corresponding inequality to excite apprehension. This point bears the same name as that formerly described, viz: Waipapa-papa, or troubled waters.

In the forty-seven miles of coast line under examination during the day, we observed only one roadstead and that in north-westerly winds, namely Toutouk Bay, nineteen miles S. 55° W. of Nuggett Point; although the mouths of many rivers were discernable, and their upward course traced by the eye for several miles as they flowed between rounded heights of moderate elevation and densely wooded. The War-kawa, twelve miles east of Wai-papa-papa Point excepted; these streams are accessible merely to boats, in some of them only at high water.

With certain indications of fine weather, we anchored for the night in 18 fathoms, within the eastern entrance of Foveaux Strait, five miles from Ruapuke, its largest central isle. On the morning following, the ship was moved into its north-eastern roadstead. We found this a shallow rocky anchorage sheltered between south and east, by islets and reefs only, some of which do not show themselves except in bad weather. A German Lutheran Missionary, one other European, and 105 out of the Maori population of the Strait, were then residing there. The island is of moderate (200 feet) elevation, wooded on its eastern side, with several picturesque lakes and grassy valleys, pasturing about twenty head of cattle. The soil as observed in the native clearing was good; indeed both vegetables and meat furnished to the ship proved excellent.

Ruapuke was found to be laid down forty miles west of its true position, and similar incorrectness was observed in all parts of Foveaux Strait. So material a change indeed, will our survey effect in the geography of the southern end of the New Zealand Islands, that it may be almost looked upon as a new country. Only one spot, the southern cape of Stewart Island, seen by Cook, did we find correctly laid down. I must, however, except from this censure, the sketch made by Mr. Anglem, a person of considerable talent and education, who remarkably enough, terminated a wild eventful life in the seclusion of Stewart Island. To its highest part, having 3,300 feet altitude, we gave his name in memorial of the great assistance derived from his chart. Mount Anglem overlooks the southern shore of Foveaux Strait. Another eminence of inferior elevation, but more conspicuous from its isolated position, called the Bluff, or eastern entrance of Arrarua harbour commands the northern side: its distance from Ruapuke is twelve miles. We vainly attempted to reach the Bluff one quiet day, ascertaining in the way the position of a dangerous rock bearing N. 87° E., three miles and a half from a remarkable mound at the north end of the island. Just as we had got within a couple of miles of the entrance, the ship was struck by a gale from W.S.W., of such violence that it quite paralized the Acheron's steam power. The transition from calm to storm was so instantaneous, and with so little barometric or other indication, that a sailing vessel, unless well manned, must have lost some spars. In the Acheron we were glad to get before it, and made for the anchorage we left in the morning under Ruapuke. There we rode out this storm of four days' duration, varying from W.N.W., and moderating at south: the barometer being

as low as 28.58. Our second attempt was successful, and we reached Avarua harbour, an oval shaped estuary of three miles and a half extent, and so full of shoals as to have but limited space for ships within its entrance, which being only a tenth of a mile wide, has at times a seven knot tide sweeping through it.

Boat and pedestrian parties now explored the northern shore, in earnest; they began with the Bluff, a remarkable headland, or basaltic hill of 855 feet altitude, which we found an important station, from whence the river is most imposing. Between the points of north-east and north-west, we saw an extensive plain in form not unaptly compared to a bishop's mitre, and measuring as was afterwards ascertained, a full hundred miles. Isolated patches of forest are dotted over this vast expanse, relieving the monotony inseparable from a wholly naked surface. In the N.N. W., is a range of snow-capped peaks, the loftiest of which measures 6,700 feet, and long white sandy beaches wind gracefully along its seaward outline. On turning to the opposite direction the eye rests on Forveaux Strait, then presenting the aspect of a tranquil arm of the sea some fifteen miles wide, with Stewart Island for its southern boundary, and many clusters of small islands occupying the space almost from shore to shore.

Large openings in the northern hills afford a passage to three rivers; Aparima or Jacobs river, which winds along the western edge of the plain; New river, traversing its centre; and Matuaru, its eastern side. The last named river meets the sea nineteen miles eastward of the bluff, and like most in New Zealand, loses its velocity in an estuary, and creeps onwards to its destination by a narrow channel (of two feet depth) the more to be regretted, because passing through a fertile unoccupied country. Jacobs river and New river have their confluence with the sea at distances of twenty-eight miles northward of the bluff. The latter stream only is capable of admitting 400 ton vessels, and being separated by merely a short half mile portage from the head waters of Avarua harbour, between them is the most advantageous site for a settlement remaining on the Middle Island.

Another favorable circumstance is that these waters lead to the rich country explored by Messrs. Hamilton and Spencer of the Acheron, which almost joins the Otago Block in a north-easterly direction. Thirty miles of the New river have been examined. The width ranged from 50 to 500 yards, the depth from two to nine feet. Its banks are generally of coarse gravel and shingle, with a superstatum of rich mould three feet thick, clothed with good grass and very lightly timbered. In that distance the plain rose considerably, being 200 feet above the sea level at the furthest point reached, with the change of elevation marked by rapids at each succeeding steppe.

Eight Europeans and twenty Maoris resident at the Bluff, are the remnants of some large whaling establishments, which, to judge from the bones scattered in immense quantities along the beach, must formerly have been as prosperous as they are now unproductive. Not a whale spout is now seen where ten years ago, that number of fish were captured daily.