To the Editor of the United Service Gazette.

Sir,- H.M. surveying sloop Beagle arrived from Australia, after an absence of more than six years, without the loss of a sail, boat, or spar, and only two of her crew - one from old age, and the other from dysentery contracted at Timor, which speaks volumes in favour of the climate of Australia, after the constant exposure of sleeping in boats in Mangrove Creeks. Although her operations were confined to the coast, her officers penetrated within five hundred miles of the centre of the continent on the north-west coast, and within three hundred miles on the northern, the nearest distance to the spot reached by that most enterprising of Australian travellers, Mr. Eyre, who proceeded 230 miles further to the northward of South Australia.

It is worthy of remark that the Beagle has the same spars she left England with in 1831; they were fitted with Mr. Snow Harris's lightening conductors - a circumstance which proves they do not weaken even the small spars. In evidence of the utility of that gentleman's invention, the vessel was struck by lightning in South Australia without receiving the slightest damage. An eye-witness of the occurrence has described it in the following terms :- " The electric fluid passed down the mizen-mast without injuring the ship or spars. An officer was within a foot of the mast at the time, but experienced no inconvenience beyond that of a slight alarm. The noise was a vibrating sound similar to the rattling of a tin canister."

It is peculiar, if not an unprecedented, circumstance for officers to serve for so long a period in one ship as the undermentioned have done in the Beagle, viz.: the Commander and Surgeon 18 years, the Boatswain 15 years, the Senior Mate 12 years, and the Clerk in Charge 9 years.

The large collection brought home in the Beagle includes specimens of the spined lizards of Western Australia, technically called devils ; " their resemblance to his cloven-footed majesty is said by the knowing ones, to be very strong.

Mr. Gould has already made known the valuable addition to his work on Ornithology, selected from the Surgeon's collection. Mr. Bynoe's exertions have done much towards the elucidation of natural history; and his long professional services are of a nature to deserve every reward and encouragement.

To aid the Beagle in her surveying operations in Bass's Strait, the Colonial cutter Vansittart, of Van Diemen's Land, was most liberally lent by His Excellency Sir John Franklin, and placed under the command of Mr. C. C. Forsyth, the Senior Mate assisted by Mr. Pasco, another of her mates. The services of these officers led to very important results. Mr. Forsyth had a very narrow escape on the western coast of Van Diemen's Land, where he coasted a steep and rocky shore for nearly ninety miles in a small crowded boat, almost without provisions. It blew so hard, and there was such a terrific sea during the latter part of their perilous journey, that, notwithstanding the precaution of raising the boat's gunwale by means of strips of blankets, the crew expected every moment to be lost.

The interest attaching to the Beagle's late voyage has been greatly enhanced by sketches of the many hitherto unfrequented parts of Australia which she has visited. These sketches are the production of her First Lieutenant, Mr. Gore, grandson of Captain Gore, who accompanied Captain Cook in his voyages of discovery. Besides his services in the Beagle, he was First Lieutenant of the Volage in the early part of the Chinese war, and second of that ship at the taking of Aden; he was likewise in the Polar expedition -with Sir George Back, and in the Albion at Navarino.

Captain P. P. King, Royal Navy, who is well known to the scientific, world, has drawn up a summary of the Beagle's late voyage, (for which we may possibly find room in a future Gazette.) In the mean time it may be as well to mention two singular facts connected with her career. One is her having passed under old London bridge to salute at the coronation of King George the Fourth ; and the other the circumstance of her late Acting Commander having passed through all the grades in one ship. We are not aware of there being another instance of the kind on record.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

P 053 - 04 May 44

" We cannot bring ourselves to think of the Beagle as a mere senseless concretion of wood, iron, and hemp. For more than twenty years we have been familiar with her name as a discovery ship. She has been associated in our minds with heroic enterprise, skill, and sagacity, displayed in every clime, and we have come to regard her in somewhat the same-light as the ancient Greeks maybe supposed to have beheld the Argo. Within her timber ribs dwells a discerning soul ; her head give out oracles ; and if there be any chance of promotion hereafter to a berth among the constellations, we would petition to have her set down for the first vacancy. Singular to relate, this excellent seaboat, which has bravely sustained such a long series of peculiar and perilous trials, and which in 1843 brought home almost unchanged the spars and boats with which she left Plymouth in 1831, belongs to that ill-famed class, the ten-gun brigs, or floating coffins, as they are commonly called. She was built at Woolwich in 1819, and her first exploit was the remarkable and unprecedented one of passing under old London Bridge, and ascending the river to salute at the coronation of George the Fourth. Another fact connected with her, for which the history of the service affords no parallel, is that every cruise of her late commander, from his first as a middy to his last as a consummate seamen, was made in her alone. We may well conceive his affection for his eighteen years' home on the wave, for the planks on which he first found his sea legs, and treading which in fair and foul weather, through all the vicissitudes and vivid emotions of an adventurous life, he reached his present rank and distinguished eminence in his profession. We can sympathize with him as he mourns over the old ship's decrepitude and anticipates her approaching fate. Her roving days are over, and she is dozing out her remaining span in the Preventive service, being moored in Crouch Creek, near South End. Latterly she has shown symptoms that indicate a general breaking up of the system, and the chances are that her ribs will separate, and that she will perish in the river where she was first put together. We shall never again pass Crouch Creek with indifference ; it claims an interest in our feelings for the sake of the brave old Beagle-- Atlas, May 16.

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