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Nor should the valuable instructions of Captain Beaufort, Hydrographer to
the Admiralty, be forgotten; such extracts as may probably prove of
interest to the general reader are here subjoined.

EXTRACTS FROM HYDROGRAPHER'S INSTRUCTIONS.

The general objects of the expedition which has been placed under your
command, having been set forth in their Lordship's orders, it becomes my
duty to enter somewhat more specifically into the nature and details of
the service which you are to perform. Their Lordships having expressed
the fullest reliance on your zeal and talents, and having cautiously and
wisely abstained from fettering you in that division and disposition of
your time which the periodic changes of the seasons or the necessities of
the vessel may require, it would ill become me to enter too minutely into
any of those arrangements which have been so flatteringly left to your
discretion; yet, in order to assist you with the results of that
experience which has been derived from the many surveys carried on under
the direction of the Admiralty, and to ensure that uniform consistency of
method in your varied labours, which will so greatly enhance their value,
I will briefly touch on some of the most important subjects, and repeat
those instructions which their Lordships have in every former case
ratified, and which it is therefore expected you will bear in mind during
the whole progress of your survey.

The first point to which your orders advert, after quitting England, is
the Eight Stones, where you will probably add one to the many testimonies
which have been already collected of their non-existence, at least in the
place assigned to them in the old charts; but, before we venture to