Peter Dillon – författare

Entrepreneurial, spirited and ambitious, Peter Dillon (1788-1847) spent much of his life as a trader and adventurer in the Pacific region and learnt several Pacific languages. In 1826-7, through contacts in the Santa Cruz Islands, Dillon located the wrecks of La Perouse's Pacific expedition, unaccounted for since 1788. This later earned him a knighthood and annuity from the French government. (La Perouse's despatches, and La Billardière's account of an earlier search for the wrecks are also reissued.) In this two-volume 1829 publication, translated into French and Dutch the following year, Dillon tells the story of his sensational discovery. Volume 1 describes La Perouse's disappearance, Dillon's encounter (now disputed) with Fijian cannibals, and the first items identified from the wrecks. It also records his officially backed return to the wreck site, which was punctuated by violent quarrels, attempts at mutiny, and a stay in a Tasmanian jail.

Entrepreneurial, spirited and ambitious, Peter Dillon (1788-1847) spent much of his life as a trader and adventurer in the Pacific region and learnt several Pacific languages. In 1826-7, through contacts in the Santa Cruz Islands, Dillon located the wrecks of La Perouse's Pacific expedition, unaccounted for since 1788. This later earned him a knighthood and annuity from the French government. (La Perouse's despatches and La Billardière's account of an earlier search for the wrecks are also reissued) In this two-volume 1829 publication, translated into French and Dutch the following year, Dillon tells the story of his sensational discovery. After an ethnographical account of Tonga, largely borrowed from William Mariner's 1818 description (also reissued), Volume 2 gives fascinating details of Dillon's enquiries (through multiple interpreters) into La Perouse's fate, and how he negotiated to acquire 'relics' including a ship's bell, parts of weapons and machinery, and even pieces of china.

Shallow groundwater systems are important as a source of water, for sustenance of stream baseflow, and for wetland and riparian ecosystems. They are also central to waterlogging, and dryland and irrigation salinity problems. Response time to hydrologic change and pollutant loadings is fast among shallow aquifiers, and it is important that hydrogeologists and natural resource managers understand the unsaturated zone processes which links human activity at the soil surface and the underlying groundwater, and vice versa. This volume of papers explores practical aspects of soil and surface water interactions with groundwater, including modelling of flow and contaminant transport in the unsaturated and saturated zones.