86 January 1854 Coral Sea the reef and into deep water again. We kept on our course, though we saw the reef running parallel to our course, a mile or two to windward. 26th S. Lat 17°13' E. Lon 162°18' Wind NE Av 3k 27th S. Lat 16°20' E. Lon 161°34' Wind NE Av 3k I am now engaged in working up the materials obtained at Sydney, having a small place screened off to work in, near one of the gundeck ports. Today a curious circumstance happened, which shows how frequently errors regarding the geographical distribution may occur. At noon the officer of the deck sent for me, and upon coming up he pointed out to me a bird sitting on the water some distance astern, which we had just passed. He regarded it as a penguin, in which opinion other officers concurred. It made no attempt to fly, had I first seen, where it had probably risen, under the stern of the ship. As it went astern it had, in the opinion of many of those "who had sailed," precisely the look of a penguin of the Southern latitudes" I had some 87 January 1854 Coral Sea difficulty in persuading the officer of the deck that it could scarcely have been a penguin as this spot did not accord with its known distribution; however he, in consequence refrained from marking it on the log-slats. Nothing more was said, - but the next day the Steward reported that one of his chickens "flew clean out of the port yesterday" at noon. 28th S. Lat 15°38' E. Lon 161°29' Wind NE Av 2k Frequent calms 29th S. Lat 15°16' E. Lon 161°46' Wind E Av 3km. Sunday Several small sharks (K 101) and a Bonita (K 107) were taken today, of which measurements and sketches were made. 30th S. Lat 13°40' E. Lon 162°24' Wind E Av 3k Temp of air now 88° - of the water 84° 31st S. Lat 12°57' E. Lon 162°59' Wind Wbl Av 2k Nearly calm. In the afternoon Mr Brooke took a book by order of the Commodore, and at some little distance from the ship, took a deep sea sounding, using cod-line and his contrivance for obtaining a specimen of the bottom, which he did obtain, cure that from a depth of 2150 fathoms. The specimen