Joseph Beete Jukes (1811–1869) was a geologist who studied at Cambridge under the famous Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873) and eventually became a prominent member of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. In 1839, after many field expeditions in England, he was appointed to a survey of Newfoundland, a place about which he had until then been in 'utter ignorance'. The explorers failed to find the hoped-for mineral wealth they had been sent to prospect for, and returned to Britain. In 1841 Jukes joined the H.M.S. Fly as a naturalist for an upcoming expedition to chart the coasts of Australia and New Guinea. The Fly set sail for the Pacific in 1842, the year in which this two-volume account of Jukes' Newfoundland experiences was published. Volume 2 focuses mainly on Jukes' scientific observations, and includes descriptions of the island's natural history, geography and geology.