Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. — Volume 2 / Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition.

A detailed narrative of a mid-nineteenth-century naval survey voyage documents coastal and island surveys in New Guinea, Torres Strait, and the Louisiade Archipelago, combining travel narrative with systematic natural-history observations and ethnographic description. Chapters describe encounters with indigenous peoples, village life, material culture, vocabularies, and burial and initiation practices; other sections report geological observations, bird and mollusc collections, and species descriptions. The volume also includes a separate account of an overland exploration of Cape York Peninsula, logs and eyewitness statements, comparative vocabularies, and scientific appendices compiling specimens and taxonomic notes.