NEW LIGHTS AND BEACONS.

(From the Shipping Gazette.)

THE GOODWIN BEACON.-We are informed by our correspondent at Deal, that a Beacon has at length been erected on the Goodwin Sand, which, we have reason to hope, will be instrumental in preserving the lives of many valuable seamen, and a large amount of property, hitherto annually sacrificed. This Beacon has, we learn, heen erected at the suggestion and under the superintendence of Captain Bullock, of the surveying vessel Boxer, and was constructed under the immediate inspection of Captain Boys, of the Royal Navy. We congratulate our nautical friends on this improvement, which has been too long a desideratum; and we trust we shall in a few days be enabled to furnish them with an official account of the position and bearings of the Beacon. SPURN NEW SAND FLOATING LIGHT.-Hull, September 10th.-A new light vessel was on Saturday last fixed to her moorings on the New Sand, off the mouth of the Humber. She is a very fine vessel, coppered, and of the same tonnage as the old vessel, which had buffeted the storms of twenty years, having been placed on the sand in 1820, and only twice since brought to Hull for repairs. She is to be offered for sale. An alteration has been made in the light itself, which was formerly permanent, but is now revolving, appearing for half a minute and then disappearing for the same period. It can be seen at some distance further than the one which has been removed.-Eastern Counties Herald. ST. JOHN (N.B.)--We understand that Cape Enrage Light-house, near the Head of the Bay of Fundy, is in full operation,-a plain white light.

NOTICE TO MARINERS.-A new lantern has been put on Cape Henlopen Lighthouse, lighted with eighteen lamps and eighteen large reflectors. -Extract from the Delaware Gazette. Masters of vessels having to pass on the Bahama Banks, are hereby notified, that there is a fixed light on the Doubleheaded Shot Keys, discernible eighteen to twenty miles in the night, and fifteen in the day. Several vessels have nearly been lost, in taking the above light for one on the Florida shore.

EYEMOUTH HARBOUR LIGHTS-These Lights have been recently erected for the benefit of the fishermen frequenting the port of Eyemouth during the herring season. To those who resort thither from distant parts of the coast, and who are therefore less able than those belonging to the port to find it in a dark night, these lights are of special service. Last year, during one stormy night a Newhaven boat was very nearly lost from missing Eyemouth Bay. The advantage of the lights has been most signally proved this season, by having enabled the fishing boats to find the harbour at once, on two several occasions, when it was necessary to make for shore. The brightest of the two lights is erected on a post about twenty-six feet from the ground, and is seen at a distance of more than six miles. The smaller light is placed at the pier head, and whilst it indicates the entrance to the harbour, it is in such a position relatively to the other light as to afford a leading mark, when the lights are brought into one line, for the best passage into ENLARGED SERIES.-NO. 10.-VOL. FOR 1840.

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Eyemouth Bay. The erection of these lights adds greatly to the importance of this port as a fishing station. They are found useful also to vessels not only trading with Eyemouth, but sailing along the coast, by distinctly informing them where they are, and enabling them, if necessary, to run at night into the Bay for shelter.-Berwick Warder.

HURRICANE AT PORT ESSINGTON, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

(From the Sydney Herald of May.)

ON Monday, 25th November, 1839, Port Essington was visited by one of those awful hurricanes so common and destructive in the West Indies, Mauritius, &c. The day previously there was nothing indicating any extraordinary change, as commonly precedes these storms, either in the appearance of the heavens, or in the temperature. About seven o'clock in the evening, however, a squall from the southward worked gradually towards the settlement, and extended itself in a very heavy thunder storm, accompanied with most vivid forked lightning, with rain and wind. This continued for about three hours. The heavens were illuminated beautifully, there being scarcely a moment's cessation between flash and flash, and it appeared to issue from all points of the compass. The thunder almost instantaneously succeeded the flashes as the rain descended in torrents; gust followed gust so thickly that the whole scene was terrifically grand. When the fury of the elements was spent, the sky gradually became clear, but sheet lightning more than ordinary was seen during the night. On Monday the aspect of the heavens changed to a heavy lowering sky. A fresh breeze arose, with spitting rain-a certain precursor of an increasing wind. At eight the wind moderated, but the sky was still lowering, and threatened heavy rain. At noon the wind increased, rendering it dangerous to venture in a boat to the shipping. At five P.M., the wind increased to a strong gale, but not the most distant apprehensions were entertained that so awful an hurricane would succeed it. At eight P.M., it was blowing a heavy gale, and the barometer continued to fall; at ten the hurricane commenced, rendering the scene altogether fearful in the extreme. Trees were torn up, and falling about in every direction; large branches were carried by the force of the wind some hundred yards. Even the very stones themselves seemed animated and flying, as it were, from the fury of the hurricane. Every house in the settlement, with the exception of the officers' mess-house, store, and hospital, was blown down. Goverament house was thrown from the piles on which it was built, upwards of ten feet, and fell on the ground, without, however, much injury. Every person was looking for a place of safety, but none appeared within their reach they were expecting every moment to be crushed to pieces by the falling of heavy trees. Some escaped most providentially; one person was actually pulled out from under the ruins of a house. It happened that no lives were lost, or material personal injury sustained. The harbour was one sheet of foam. Her Majesty's ship Britomart, was seen to drift before dark, and Her Majesty's ship Pelorus was riding heavily at her anchors. Both vessels were evidently preparing for the impending danger. Fromten till daylight the hurricane raged with un

abated fury. At midnight the wind changed from south to east, and in a few minutes afterwards, from east to north; blowing with redoubled effort, as if determined to root every thing out of the ground.

At daylight, the scene of devastation was melancholy in the extreme. The Pelorus was on shore on her broadside at Minto Head, having lost eight men including Mr. Keltie, gunner. Many of the ship's company, were up to their necks in water, and others were holding on by the weather rigging, the sea breaking violently over them. The church was blown down. All the houses, boat-sheds, armourer's shop, &c. were destroyed. Every boat in the colony, amounting to about twenty, were complete wrecks. The only boats left were two on board the Britomart. The pier with great quantities of provisions, tanks, casks, &c., was all washed away. The bananas, plantain, and all other kinds of trees and plants, were destroyed. The limbless trunks of a few trees were all that remained. Never could such a scene of devastation have been witnessed. Garden Bay, Mangrove Point, each participated in the surrounding ruin. Garden Bay was inundated, and the spars and boats driven a long distance inland. One well was filled up and strongly impregnated with salt; the water only became fresh after the wet sea. son which followed. At Point Record the sea had made a clear breach; the tide is supposed to have risen ten feet higher than usual. The wells there were salt three months after heavy rains. The Pelorus parted her cable and went on shore soon after the commencement of the hurricane. All the bodies save one of the unfortunate men were picked up. The Britomart drove with the gale with three anchors ahead during nearly the whole time of the hurricane, and was seen at daylight out towards Spear Point, distant about a mile from where she was anchored, close to the Pelorus off the pier. The bottom being a soft tenacious clay, it was thought next to impossible that a vessel could drive; and at times vessels have been obliged to wait for the flood tide to weigh them by purchase. Since the hurricane not a bird of any kind has been seen; many were found dead the morning after it. In the settlement 8,000lbs. of biscuit were destroyed, and in the Pelorus about 5,000lb.; several bags of rice, and quantities of other provisions. Port Essington is now a perfect wilderness, and the injury done it will take no little time to repair; in fact, what has been done during the last eighteen months by 100 men is entirely destroyed.-Perth Gazette.

AUSTRALIA.

THE following extract from a letter of a Naval Officer, containing an account of his journey from Sydney to Port Philip, will give our readers some idea of life in our New Australian Settlements.

IN consequence of the great drought, and six parties having preceded me with herds of cattle on the same route, 1 found the greatest difficulty to contend with, was a scarcity of food for the cattle; and having started with 700 head, I arrived with only 620, having been obliged to leave the rest on the road too weak to travel, with the exception of those killed for the consumption of my party, consisting of twelve persons: and amongst the number knocked up were nearly the whole of the working bullocks, (our supplies being carried by two bullock drays,) which obliged me to break in others from the herd to supply their places, by no means an easy matter under such circumstances.

These circumstances combined with the trouble and constant attention required in driving a large herd of cattle through a new country, admit but of little time for observation. In fact, I always slept in my clothes,-had seldom time to take any refreshment between daylight and dark, and was seldom off my saddle during that period; after which, came the nights' watching, in which I took my turn with the men, dividing the night into three watches, our custom being to collect the cattle up in a circle, with fires all round them.

In consequence of the weakly state of our cattle, from a want of food, we were four months on the road, a much longer period than I had anticipated, or provided for: we were therefore on short allowance a month before we arrived, and for the last fortnight subsisted entirely on beef and water, having no substitute whatever for flour or vegetables: excepting when, occasionally we found some penny-royal in the river, which we made into tea, and smoked the stem in our pipes; our tobacco being all expended with the other supplies.

On starting from New South Wales, I crossed the Murrumbidgee, at the crossing place of the Port Philip road, and kept the left bank to its junction, with the Murray and that part of the latter river which is commonly called the Hume, for the whole of this space, with the exception of the river flats, the country as far as the eye can reach is one vast desert of plain; destitute of herbage, and with the exception of a few stunted trees of the Eucalyptic tribe, and some salsolaceous shrubs, without a symptom of regulation. The soil is of a loose rotten description, in which a horse goes over his fetlock at every step, and must I should think in the rainy season be one vast swamp. For the whole of this space, there is not a single tributary falling into the Murrumbidgee, from the northward, with the exception of the Lachlan, the bed of which we found dry, and the country of the same barren description.

We now kept the left bank of the river Murray, a much more noble stream than the Murrumbidgee, and which viewed from some of those stupendous and almost perpendicular fossil cliffs, described by Captain Sturt, has a grand and imposing appearance. The predominant fossil in this immense and singular bed is the common oyster. The river flats are much more extensive than those of the former river; but the country northward as far as can be seen by the traveller, is for the most part extremely barren, being covered with a dense scrub, on deep coarse red sand. The thickness of this scrub, which is only varied by occasional fine ridges, combined with the heavy red sand, renders the travelling on this part of the route very irksome and arduous for the working cattle. After rounding the N.W. angle of the Murray, we still kept the river hank for thirty-five miles, when we struck westward through the dense scrub, separating it from the fine country laying eastward of the ranges of mountains which bound the plains of Adelaide on that quarter. We were obliged to camp the cattle one night in the scrub, and to travel all the next day without water, and when in the evening we found some in a deep gulley, the holes were too small to admit of the whole herd drinking from them, the consequence was, that 200 head with two horses entered the scrub at this spot, and worked through it, making the river at the very spot they had left it. I was obliged, therefore, with two of the men to follow their tracks, we found where they had bedded one night in the scrub, and still following the tracks, we suddenly heard the voices of men driving cattle, and following the sound, we came on the road we had taken on leaving the river; and found a Mr. Toole just camping his cattle for the right. He had started from N. S. Wales a few days before us, and we overtook him when near the Darling, and we occasionally passed each other afterwards, interchanging civilities, and sharing our provisions until both parties had expended all; he however again had an opportunity of evincing his hospitable feeling, and regaled us with a damper, (unfermented bread,) informing us that a Mr. Mundy from Port Philip, with a herd of cattle had left them a few hours; having picked up our cattle making the river at the spot I had left it. I slept at Mr. Toole's camp that night, I started at three o'clock in the morning, making a direct course through the scrub for our own camp which I reached in the afternoon. I found Mr. Mundy's party encamped

close to my own, whom they had kindly assisted with flour, &c., but to my great chagrin, I found they had not picked up the whole of my cattle, there being 40 head with two horses still absent. I was therefore the following morning again obliged to enter the scrub, and reached the river in the evening, our horses getting very weak.

The next morning in seeking for our own we found about 100 of Mr. Mundy's cattle, they having played them the same trick. We therefore secured them in an angle of the river, and that evening we found the horses, which was fortunate, they being fresh, while those we rode were quite knocked up. The following morning we were joined by a gentleman and two men of Mr. Mundy's party in search of their cattle which we had found; on the fourth day we succeeded in finding all that were missing, and on the fifth we rejoined the main herd.

Three days travelling brought us into the beautiful, fertile and well watered district of mount Barker, and when we stopped to allow the the cattle to feed, the sight almost repaid one for all the hardships of the journey, as the luxuriance of the pasturage far surpassed any thing I had seen during an absence of six months from the colony.

We found the Darling almost stagnant, it is the only tributary running into the Murray from the northward excepting the Rufus, of which there are some doubts as to its being a river, some people alleging that it is merely the back water from the Murray. We travelled round it on dry land, but this is no criterion by which to judge, as several of our rivers in this country are in many places only a succession of pools, while in other parts, a continuous stream is running, and in fact these pools are not stagnant, but find a course under the soil which separates them. It is an odd circumstance that nearly all the creeks and lagoons in the neighbourhood of the Murray are salt, as is the case with some of the small rivers and lakes in this province. We found the natives very numerous, but generally speaking friendly, although I think them treacherous, and that they mistake kindness for timidity. I however insisted on their being treated kindly, without allowing them too near the camp, although my party were much incensed by an attack from them before we reached the Lachlan.

I desired the men on starting never to leave the camp unarmed, and they obeyed my orders strictly, until one evening after a very long and fatiguing day's journey I was just rounding the cattle up for the night, and the two bullock drivers had taken the working bullocks about a quarter of a mile from us to feed, when they suddenly came running back, calling out that the blacks were rushing on the cattle, they being without fire arms for the first time; three men and myself instantly gave chase well armed, and pressed them so closely, as to oblige them to leave the bullocks and take to the river, it was then too dark to see them, or I should certainly have shot some of them. We were the whole of the two succeeding days collecting our bullocks, some of them having been so much frightened, as to run with hobbles on a distance of twelve miles in different directions; we found one with eight spears in him, and as the poor beast of course could not rise we shot him. We saw no natives for many days afterwards, and my men never went without their arms again.

This colony is progressing most rapidly, as you will perceive by the accompanying statistical account which was compiled by a friend of mine with much attention and labour. There have been 32 special surveys, and £4000, paid for each by parties in the colony during this year, but this has been rather detrimental to the smaller capitalists, as from the inefficient working of the survey system, the greater part of the good land in districts near the town has been monopolized by the proprietors of these surveys, they having a right to demand a survey on payment of £4000 in any part of the colony, while other parties have to wait until the survey's reach those districts before they can select their land.

With capital in this colony, a fortune may be made with common attention, but without it nothing can be done, excepting by the mechanic or labourer.