THE AVON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 158, 14 January 1854, Page 10

THE AVON.

" Fies nobilium tv quoque fontinm." Hon. I love tlice, Avon! though thy hanks have known No deed of note, iliy wand'rin"; course alon«j No Ban! of Avon h;ilh nour'd lorth in son»Thy tuneful praise; thy modest tide hath flown For cent'rics on, unheeded and alone. I love thee for thy English name, but more Because my countrymen along thy shore Have made new homes. Therefore not all unknown Henceforth thy streams shall flow. A little i while Shall see thy wastes grow lovely. Not in vain Shall I£u»-laud's sons dwell by thee many a mile. With verdant meads and fields of waving grain Thy rough unculiur'd hanks ere-long shall smile. Henv'ii-pointing spires shall beautify thy l>!ain. j. Christchurch, IS.>3.

'Hie foil ft win it account of tlie discovery of two islands lias been sent us by Capt. Pearson, (if the ship " Cash more.'1 On are Terence to maps -.Ye cannot find any islands laid down near the position assigned, thouuh it is possil)le that the recent surveys of Captain Stanley may have indicated them, as lie was very much occupied about that part of the seas adjacent to Australia. The position assigned by Capt. Pearson, namely, latitude Hvo3, and longitude ]49"j1 east, is aiiout three hundred mi.es east from Cape Melville, and about two hundred south of the Louisiade Archipelago, where it is pr.ihable that many islands and in'ets exist which have not yet been laid down in the charts.—Report of the ■Cashmere:—"The Cashmere left New Plymouth, New Zealand, .July 12th, 1853, on her way to India, via Torres Straits. For the first part of the passage experienced a continuance of heavy squalls and »ales of wind from the north-west with heavy rain until July 28th, in latitude 22"29 south, from whence southerly winds and fine clear weather. On Tuesday, August 2nd. (civil time) at 3 p.m.. saw the Alert reef, and on noHiein-j; able to weather it, tacked and stood to the southward. At daylight nothing vi>ible from the masthead, bore away to the north north-west. Thursday, Aimnst 4, b* a.m. Saw two islands covered with bushes, from 18 to 20 feet" hi»-h, apparently, with a line sandy beach, one bearing north north-west, the other north-east by compass, not heinir inaiked in any of our charts, nor in Morsbuiuh's Directory. Hauled the courses up. and laid the foreyard to the mast, and drifted down mid-channel. At 7 a.m., the following bearinsrs were taken by an azimuth compass: " East Island, north end, north-east by east half east. East Island, south end, east by north half north, with heavy breakers extending three or four cables' length from northwest end. West Island, north end, south-west by we>t half west, al<o with heavy breakers from the south-west end. At 8 a.m..bore away north-west by north half north.. Position of the shift at noon by good sitrhts, latitude 1622 S., longitude, by cbron., 149 3S E., *.shich by course made good, since time of bearing. places the East Island in latitude 1653 S\! ionuitude H9 51 E. ; west side West Island, i latitude 16 55 S., longitude 13943 east side! Visible -from the deck between nine and ten miles. Should the above described islands not hiivejieen previously noticed, I shall call them Willis's Islands, in compliment to the owner of the Cashmere. — Calcutta Englishman, Sept. Wkstekn Australia.—The Unknown Tn!\kuiou. —Some three or four months since, some strange natives arrived at the farm of Messrs. Tonikins and Jenkins, in the Toodyay district, Western Australia, in a most deplorably emaciated condition, perfectly naked, and the women carrying; their children in net ba<-s. From their audibly expressed astonishment and fear at whatever they saw, it was evident that ittes" natives had never before come in contact either with Europeans or their improvements. For some weeks, i,, consequence of the Toodyay natives' ignorance of the dialect of the strangers, it W a S impossible to make: out where they had come fioni, but by dint of perseverance, Mackintosh, an intelligent native .constable, and also some others, at last managed to pick up a few words of their lan»ua<><> and so far as they cm make it on-, it appears the new comers' home is at a distance of about

200 miles north-east from Tnodyav, ami that in their journey tlience they had great .suffering, and at one lime they were without water. Their country they describe, at least su the Tondyay unlives understood them, as a grassy hill ami dale, of a level similar to that of Toodyay v.-illey, destitute of timber, and no water i)iit what they ohtitiu from wells; they live in holes in the ground (probably in lints, plastered with clay) and have no kangaroo, hut subsist upon a burrowing animal which they capture in nets, such as those they carry their children in, 2j feet long l>y 18 inches broad, made of the bark of a tree, but manufactured with great ingenuity, being little inferior to coir string ; the strands are well twisted, and the knots almost the same as the common fisherman's knot. They assert that (bur days' journey further to the eastward than their own country, there is a largi river with numerous natives (like flocks of sheep) and a large red kangaroo.— Englishman.