Читать книгу Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara (Vol. 1-3) - Karl von Scherzer - Страница 19

In The South Indian Ocean.

Former History.—Importance of the situation of St. Paul.—Present inhabitants.—Preliminary observations.—To whom does the Island belong?—Fisheries.—Hot springs.—Singular experiment.—Penguins.—Disembarkation.—Inclement weather.—Remarks on the climate of the Island.—Cultivation of European vegetables.—Animal life.—Library in a Fisherman's hut.—Narrative of old Viot.—Re-embarkation.—An official document left behind.—Some results obtained during the stay of the Expedition.—Visit to the Island of Amsterdam.—Whalers.—Search for a Landing-place.—Remarks on the Natural History of the Island.—A Conflagration.—Comparison of the two islands.—A rencontre at sea.—Trade-wind.—Christmas at sea.—"A man overboard."—Cingalese canoe.—Arrival at Pont de Galle, in Ceylon.

The visit of the Austrian frigate Novara to the Islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul, so long confounded with one another, was one of the cherished objects of interest to the immortal Alexander von Humboldt.

Although St. Paul has been in very recent times visited and surveyed by illustrious English navigators,56 and although the doubt hitherto existent as to the precise discoverer, and the correct application of the names of the two islands, has been set at rest by the discovery of the original log of Antonio Van Diemen, kept on his voyage from the Texel to Batavia (16th December, 1632, to 21st July, 1633), by which it is made plain, beyond possibility of contradiction, that that renowned navigator passed for certain on 17th July, 1633, between both islands, and conferred on the northern the name of New Amsterdam, and on the southern that of St. Paul;57 yet the two islands still continue to present points of great interest on closer examination and observation. Of the various ships which, since the discovery of those islands, have visited them for scientific purposes, hardly any have remained long enough to be in a position to acquire a thorough acquaintance with the various objects of natural history and scientific interest that present themselves. Even the visit paid by the naturalist attached to the expedition on board the English ship Lion and Hindostan which, on the 2nd of February, 1793, touched at St. Paul, en route to China, and to whom we are indebted for the first detailed account of this island, erroneously spoken of as Amsterdam (following the example of former English navigators), did not come within the original design of that Ambassadorial expedition. It was the result rather of accident that, as the Lion and Hindostan were passing close in with St. Paul, two human beings were descried on the shore, waving in the air a piece of canvas fastened on poles, who apparently were anxious to convey to the expedition their desire to communicate with their ships. It was supposed these were shipwrecked mariners, stranded on this dangerous coast, who regarded the arrival of the Lion as an unexpected means of rescue. To save these fellow-creatures from so desperate a position, the Captain of the Lion declared to be a pleasing duty assigned by Providence, and rejoiced to have been selected as the instrument of their deliverance. When, however, the boat of the British man-of-war, which was despatched to take off the castaways and bring them on board ship, had landed on the island, the crew speedily discovered the singular delusion which all had laboured under. The men, whom motives of humanity had intended to rescue from this inhospitable place, turned out to be anything but involuntary residents on the island, being seal-hunters, who for five months had dwelt here, and purposed remaining ten months longer, with the intention of completing a cargo of 25,000 seal-skins, for which at that time there was a very considerable and lucrative demand in the Chinese markets,58 and the signals which had first attracted their attention, it now appeared were for no other object than to enable them to feel themselves once more, after such an interval, in the company of their fellowmen.

Owing to the important situation of St. Paul, midway between the southernmost point of Africa and the Australian continent (from each of which it is about 3150 miles distant), a complete, accurate survey of the island seemed of great importance, not merely to the scientific world, but also in the interests of navigation; as most of the ships bound for China, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as the East India liners, pass pretty close to these islands, especially during the winter season. Many captains trading in the Indian ocean see in St. Paul an advantageous haven for recruiting the strength of their scurvy-stricken crews, while the ships of others, shattered almost to the point of foundering in the storms of a tract of ocean where for thousands of miles there is no other land, can find here their only prospect of preservation.

For the voyagers on board the Novara, an interest of an entirely personal sort attached to their visit to the island. Among the unfortunates, who on the 24th August, 1853, suffered shipwreck on the shores of New Amsterdam, in the British ship Meridian, was a native of Brienz, in Switzerland, named Pfau. This person, together with the captain, Richard Hernamann, and a Frenchman had disappeared, leaving no trace, when, on the following morning, the surviving passengers of the wrecked ship were rescued by a whaler that happened to be cruising in the neighbourhood. It was supposed that the three unfortunate men had endeavoured to reach the adjacent island of St. Paul in a small boat, and probably were still living there. The father of the Swiss made application, through an indirect channel, to the chief of the Expedition, earnestly requesting him on his visit to the island to institute some enquiries with the view of finding some trace of his ill-starred son, still unwilling to renounce all hope that he might yet be found living at St. Paul.

We hove to about one mile and a half distant from the great crater-basin, in whose eastern buttress a natural communication has been opened with the sea through a breach in its side. When the Dutch captain, William Van Flaming, cast anchor before the island in 1697, the wearing action of the waves had not yet completed this breach, there existing at that period a dam of some five feet high between the sea and the cavity of the crater. At present small boats can, at any hour of the day, pass into the crater-basin, protected from the swell of the ocean by two natural barriers, which leave between them a passage of about 300 feet wide. Our last admeasurement gave a length of 600 feet for the southern barrier, and 1002 feet for that in the north; while the intervening water passage measured 306 feet in breadth, with a depth of 9.6 feet at high water, and from 2 to 3 feet at ebb tide. On the north side of the entrance to the straits stands a lofty pyramidal rock, called Nine-Pin Rock, round which circle innumerable sea-fowl, which to all appearance brood among the chinks and crannies of the rock, while in the water below crowds of sharks lash the water into foam. It must be highly dangerous hereabouts to be capsized in a boat, as there would be little possibility of any one being rescued, no matter how speedily assistance might be rendered.

Scarcely were we anchored, ere we in the ship perceived a boat approaching from the island, which rapidly neared the frigate, with three men who had taken up their abode in even this desolate wilderness. Our imagination deluded us with the pleasing idea that these three forlorn, forsaken figures might be the long lost men wrecked in the Meridian, whom pitying billows might have wafted to this solitary island.

Presently there stepped on deck by the side-ropes a grizzly figure, with deeply-furrowed features and long, grey beard, clothed in a blue blouse and coarse linen trowsers, that seemed to have weathered many a winter's storm. This primitive-looking old man proved to be a Frenchman named Viot, who had lived here for a considerable time as overseer of a fishing establishment on the island. Our first question had reference to the missing men from the Meridian. But how sore was our disappointment when the old sailor in the blouse told us he knew all the particulars of the catastrophe of the ship, but that he had never come across the slightest trace of the three unfortunates whom we had enquired about. Viot had visited the island regularly every year since 1841, except that in which the Meridian had been lost. The fate of these three shipwrecked men must therefore remain for ever undetermined, although, considering the tempestuous weather which usually prevails in the Indian Ocean in the month of August, it is highly improbable that a boat of such small dimensions as that to which the captain and his two unhappy fellow-travellers committed themselves, could reach St. Paul, which was distant 42 miles from the spot at which the ship was wrecked.

About 11.30 a. m. the naturalists, accompanied by the officers appointed to assist in the scientific operations, proceeded in two boats to the shore, for the purpose of making some preliminary observations. When we reached the bar there opened to our view, covered with luxurious grass growing in tufts, the walls of a majestic crater, the exquisite regularity of the cavity of which left the exact impression of an enormous natural amphitheatre.

DISTANT VIEW OF CRATER-BASIN OF ST. PAUL.

On either side the ground rises nearly perpendicularly to a height of about 800 feet, which probably is likewise the average height of the walls of the crater. On the north side of the basin, a kind of terrace was seen low down, with huts thatched with straw, while on the shingle of the bar was planted a not very perpendicular flagstaff, on which, in honour of the arrival of a ship of war, old Viot had run up the French ensign. As the Novara's boat swept into the crater-basin, he saluted with the proverbial courtesy of his nation, which not even the rough occupation of a whale-fisher had been able to rub out of him. Viot had last come hither in the preceding March, with a mulatto and a negro on board of a fishing craft, named the Alliance, of 45 tons, in which he had sailed from St. Denis, on the Island of Bourbon, anew to take charge of the little fishing station here, which is at present the property of M. Ottovan, a French gentleman domiciliated in St. Denis.

While at Cape Town we were informed, in reply to our enquiries, by the first authority in the country, that the Island of St. Paul belonged to England, and was a dependency of the Mauritius; here, to our astonishment, we on the other hand learned from the inhabitants that St. Paul at present was under the protection of the French Government, and, in fact, was an appendage of the Island of Bourbon, the governor of which long previously had ordered the French flag to be hoisted, with all the naval formalities, by a detachment of French soldiers who had been landed from a French ship of war. According to Viot—who is to all appearance a thoroughly trustworthy man, but on whom, however, we throw the responsibility of the correctness of the following information—the island seems, in fact, to have been, some twenty years since, the property of a French merchant of St. Denis, named Camin, who somewhat later entered into partnership with a person named Adam, a Pole by birth, to whom he ultimately resigned the entire island.59 Adam, who was described to us as a man of exceedingly fierce and determined character, did wonders for the cultivation of the island. He left a number of Mozambique negroes, whom he compelled to work through the entire year, exposed to the severest privations, and employed in hewing stone from the rocks, with which huts were erected, in preparing a landing-quay on the north side of the basin, and in sowing a number of plots of ground along the lower margin of the crater with European vegetables.

About eight or ten years since, Adam (who afterwards, in the course of a voyage from Bourbon to New Zealand, met a disgraceful death, having been thrown overboard for his cruelty by the black crew of a small vessel, whom he had driven to desperation) sold the islands to their present possessor, M. Ottovan, a ship-chandler of St. Denis, who since then has twice each year, during the fine season, despatched a small craft of some 30 to 45 tons, manned by from 15 to 18 fishermen, from St. Denis to St. Paul Island, so as to turn to advantage the unusual abundance of this fishing-ground. This vessel leaves St. Denis regularly every November on its voyage of from 24 to 30 days to St. Paul. The return voyage to St. Denis takes place during the prevalence of the South-East Trades, and occupies a much shorter time, rarely exceeding 14 to 16 days. The fishing sloop, during its stay at the island, anchors inside the basin of the crater, so as to discharge her provisions for the fishermen, and to facilitate the freighting for the homeward voyage with the fish that have been caught, as also to guard her against sudden changes of weather, which in these latitudes, as we ourselves experienced, is, even during the best season, very stormy and dangerous. The fishermen use the excellent whaleboats (or baleinières), so admirably suited to the heavy swell of the Indian Ocean, in which they go out in the morning, returning to the shore at nightfall. The species of fish which is found in greatest numbers, and is caught exclusively by the hook, is usually called by the fishermen, "Indian Cod:" it is by no means, however, of the genus Haddock, and very slightly, if at all, resembles the codfish of northern waters, or common stock-fish, but seems to belong to the class of finger fish (cheilo-dactylus-fasciatus), which is usually classed among the crow fish (sciænæ). These are salted, dried in the open air, packed in casks, and dispatched in large quantities to the markets of St. Denis. It is calculated that the number thus sent off in the course of each year amounts to about 40,000. which are sold in the market of St. Denis by the hundred, for from 40 to 60 francs (£1 12s. to £2 8s.—total £640 to £960). The expenses of maintaining the settlement is very small.—Viot has 57 francs a month (£2 6s.); his two companions 40 francs and 25 francs respectively (£1 12s. and £1); the men engaged in the fishery receive 25 to 30 francs a month, besides provisions. The second voyage of the vessel ordinarily takes place in January or February, so as to return in April or May, with a similar cargo. It often happens that the owner of the vessel finds some more profitable employment for it, when it only returns during the second year, and their provisions, as meal, rice, biscuit, tobacco, &c., get rather short. The settlers, however, employ what leisure time remains after their work is done, in cultivating a number of plots of ground with cereals and vegetables, potatoes especially returning from time to time an excellent yield. Of these useful tubers, which grow with remarkable luxuriance in the turf-soil of the island, they raise from 60 to 80 cwt. annually. Fresh vegetables being articles in great request are more particularly made available by the inhabitants of St. Paul, by way of barter, when trafficking with the whalers, from 20 to 30 of which touch here in the year, to exchange their salt fish, rice, tobacco, cheese, brandy, &c., for the fresh provisions grown on the island. The number of vessels that pass within sight of St. Paul in the course of a year may be reckoned at from 100 to 150, of which, however, only a very few, except the whalers, visit the island.60 In the year 1857, for example, it occurred only twice (one case being an English man-of-war), that passing ships sent boats to the island, five months of the year having elapsed in the first instance, and two in the second.

When the take of fish in the immediate vicinity of the island does not seem sufficiently remunerative, the fishermen occasionally launch out to greater distances. They then bring out from the basin of the crater the barque that brought them from Bourbon to St. Paul, and remain at sea for several days, or make for the adjoining island of Amsterdam, the shores of which are even more frequented by the fish than those of St. Paul.

As already remarked, our first movements were directed solely towards an examination of its physical features. We were accompanied on this tour of inspection by Ferdinand, an active, intelligent Mulatto, with thoroughly French manners. The French stock has this peculiarity as compared with the German, that it remains unmistakably French, even when mixed with two-thirds African blood. Ferdinand was for the first time in St. Paul, having been conveyed hither in the Alliance in the previous March, to work for M. Ottovan. Family troubles had been the cause of his banishment to this dismal island. Although only 24 years of age, he was already the father of two children, whom, he informed us, he had placed at school in St. Denis; and in sheer despair at the worthless conduct of their mother, had hired himself hither as a labourer at 40 francs a month, paid by the owner of the island. He proposed returning to St. Denis in the next ship that left St. Paul, in the hope that peace might be by that time restored in his family.

At various spots in the lower rim of the crater-basin, within which Ferdinand acted as guide, we perceived heavy volumes of smoke emerging from the shallow parts of the water, which obviously implied the existence of hot springs. The two most active and largest in circumference were on the north side of the crater-basin, and were known, the one as the Bath, the other as the Drinking Fountain. Moreover, at several points on the north bar, hot water bubbles up from the soil, of such a temperature that the same person who, with a hook and line had caught a fish in the cold water basin, might, with the same motion of his hand, let them drop into the hot adjoining spring, where, in fact, it is boiled within a few minutes and fit for eating! We have ourselves made this experiment, which is also mentioned by Lord Macartney, and found the fish thus prepared exceedingly palatable.

At high water the whole of the hot springs become mingled with the brine of the ocean, and thus indicate a temperature which is barely perceptibly higher than that of the latter. Adjoining the landing-place, several late visitors to the island have endeavoured to perpetuate the record of their fleeting presence on some compact granite blocks of rock, which are scattered in the path to the hot springs. Thus, on one of those stones, fast becoming obliterated by the weather, may be read:—"Savouret, 1841"—"J. D. Rogers, 1855, Mars."—On a second huge block:—"Hte. Rogers, 1852 to 1857;" and lastly, these names, with difficulty decipherable, "Pallefournier-Emile, Mazarni-Denoyarez, Grenoble, Canton de Sassenage, Département de l'Isère, 1844." In general we found none of the inscriptions on the island that can be recognized.

On reaching the plateau above, which is reached by a narrow, steep, and in many places rather fatiguing path, from the settlers' huts on the north side of the basin of the crater, we came to a breeding-place of the yellow-tufted "Crested or Hopping-Penguin"61 (apterodytes chrysocome) in which we found at the lowest estimate from 500 to 600 of these singular creatures, which are adorned with grey-yellow tufts of feathers arranged in a semicircle above the eyes, and which, as was well remarked by the naturalist attached to the Lion, with the peculiar plumage and the almost scaly covering of their fin-like wings, suggest a remote resemblance to the form of a fish. Living part of the year in the water, and passing most of the remainder on land, Nature has, in a manner, adapted them for these widely differing modes of life. The dirty greyish-brown attire of the young contrasts so strongly with the gay plumage of the old penguin, that at the first glance they hardly seem to belong to the same species. The females lay only one or two eggs, usually in October, so that at the time of our visit, the young were only about a month-and-a-half or so old. These penguins, so graceful and nimble in the water, as if it were their proper element, are very awkward on land, so as to be easily caught, or knocked down with a stick. Only in so doing it is necessary to be on one's guard against a blow from their long sharp bills, with which they can inflict on their pursuer a by no means trifling wound. In the course of centuries, during which they have paid undisturbed visits to this island, they have trodden a well-marked path from their breeding-place to the edge of the sea; and it is a proof of the wonderful instinct of this creature, that this place is almost the only point on the entire island, at which it would be possible for it to reach the sea. A flock of these hopping penguins presents an odd and peculiar appearance, as, after leisurely bathing in the sea, and providing a sufficient supply of food for their young, their elegant heads emerge from the water, when carefully calculating the effect of the breakers, they ride their crest and allow themselves to be deposited on the beach; or, after hopping from stone to stone, the plumes on their heads nodding to and fro, suddenly plunge headforemost into the sea, like so many somersault-throwers! Not less diverting are the movements of these animals when, returned from their laborious wanderings, which they undertake two or three times a day in search of food for their young, they bend their tottering steps back to the roosting-place, waddling in their walk like ducks. One always leads the way as guide and forager-in-chief, and the rest, usually from ten to fifteen in number, follow him in a column; on reaching the roosting-place, a piece of level winding ground, they give a shrill cry, and comport themselves anything but peaceably towards their neighbours, especially if these have possessed themselves of their accustomed seats. Continual squabbling and disputing go on, and their croaking and screaming are prolonged far into the silence of night. They show much tenderness for their young, shelter them with great care, and defend them with extraordinary courage and pertinacity against the southern hawk gull62 (stercorarius antarcticus), which frequently swoops upon the breeding-ground, and even ventures within reach of man, from whom it defends itself by violently striking and biting with its beak. Always at war under ordinary circumstances, they are nevertheless the most faithful of allies in moments of common danger or necessity. The flesh of the old penguin has so rank a smell that it is only used by those frequenting the island in case of the most extraordinary necessity; that of the young, on the other hand, has a far more agreeable flavour.

The breeding-place of the penguin is about 300 feet above the level of the water in the basin of the crater.63 Four hundred feet more of laborious, steep scrambling, brings the adventurer to the plateau at last, from the highest peaks of which he readily obtains a view of the greater part of the island, which is utterly treeless. At many places we found the ground quite warm, and at one slimy tract, about 600 feet wide, which was noticed by the naturalists on board the Lion, there was positive danger of sinking several feet into the hot, yielding soil, if we did not advance with great care. On the other hand, the fierce tongues of flame, which Lord Macartney alleged were visible at night from the deck of the ship, and which greatly resembled the celebrated nocturnal fires of Pietra Mala, in the mountains between Florence and Bologna, were nowhere visible, at least during the time we were on the island.

On the north-west side of the islands, facing the sea, two lofty pinnacles of scoriæ, with truncated summits, rise in cones of such exquisite regularity of form as speedily attracted the attention of our geologist, and became somewhat later the chief scene of his activity. In the immediate vicinity, many traces of lava-streams are visible, which plainly show the direction in which their currents had flowed. From the upper edge of the great basin of the crater the ground slopes gradually to the sea, ending abruptly in a precipice, descending sheer 150 or 200 feet into the sea.

In order to avoid retracing our steps by the same path, we directed our guide, the ever active Ferdinand, to conduct us back to the shore by some other track than that by which we had clambered up to this point; whereupon he stopped at a point of the upper rim of the crater, where the ground fell suddenly away quite perpendicular, grasped the rich luxuriant grass hand over hand, and having proceeded a few steps, invited us to follow. At the first glance we involuntarily recoiled at the bare idea of descending into the abyss by such a route, but presently we found our advance less dangerous and appalling than had at first appeared, when it was found we might, without any misgiving, let ourselves down by the long tough grass, the strong stalks of which supplied a safe means of descent.

In less than three-quarters of an hour we had descended from the upper margin of the crater to the settlement, and at once proceeded on our return to the frigate. A pretty fresh N.W. breeze had sprung up in the meantime, which rendered our re-embarkation in our small short boats, totally unsuited to the tremendous swell of the Indian Ocean, exceedingly uncomfortable. Arrived at the ship's side, the sea ran so high, and had so increased the difficulty of laying the boats alongside, that we at first endeavoured to reach the deck by the Jacob's ladders suspended at the poop. When, however, one of the sailors (who confessedly have much greater readiness in clambering than ordinary mortals), while holding on to one of the ladders, was reached by a tremendous wave, and half his body being in the water, ran a risk of being carried off by a shark, the scientific gentlemen in the boats preferred making for the starboard side of the ship, whence they reached their haven of refuge by the man-ropes.

Although this accident sufficiently manifested the impracticability of our original plan of returning every evening on board, and of being able to remain beside the ship during the carrying out of the objects of our visit, no man supposed as yet that, at this season, the summer of St. Paul's, the weather might suddenly become so stormy and generally unfavourable, as thus early to necessitate our re-embarkation, and that the ship would be compelled, with all speed, to leave her anchorage, and put to sea for a week under most uncomfortable circumstances.

On 20th November, about 6 a. m., the officers and naturalists, together with a portion of the crew, 32 in all, left the frigate with a large quantity of instruments, scientific apparatus, and baggage. This little expedition was supplied with provisions and water for six days, there being no springs of fresh water on the island, the frequenters of which are compelled to depend for their whole supply of drinking-water, partly on the rain-fall, partly during long-continued dry seasons on the water of one of the hot brackish springs which occur on the north side of the lower circuit of the crater. Long accustomed to these fluids and to their peculiar taste, the inhabitants feel no evil results from their employment, which very probably would not be the case with those persons who visit the island for the first time, and whose arduous exertions necessitate their drinking daily large quantities of water.

On a small eminence, about 150 feet high, above the fisherman's huts on the north side of the crater-basin, a small wooden cottage was erected for the protection of the astronomers; and at a distance of about 40 feet, a second for the magnetic instruments, both of which, with their contents, were entrusted to Lieutenant Robert Müller. Lieutenants Batlogg and Eugen Kronowetter, were respectively entrusted with the observations by theodolite, and with the surveying board. To the last-mentioned gentleman were also confided the observations with the meteorological instruments, the researches with the tide-gauge, the instruments for measuring the velocity of currents, as also the soundings in the basin, and on either side of the bar—to assist him in the execution of which Cadet Count Borelli and Head Quartermaster Cian were detached. We quartered ourselves as well as we could in the wretched filthy huts which, in summer, serve the fishermen from St. Denis as a shelter. In one of these hung several pictures—one representing Napoleon I. riding the inevitable white horse, the majority consisting of female portraits and scenes of Parisian life, so that the whole place had quite a Frenchified appearance.

Hardly had the instruments, apparatus, men, and baggage been placed under shelter, when once more a strong north wind came on, which, during the night between the 20th and 21st, increased to such a height, that it blew down the two huts intended for the observations, which had not been quite finished, and in which, fortunately, the instruments had not yet been placed—exposing the work already begun to very considerable interruption.

Early in the morning, a whaler approached the island, and sent one of her boats off for fresh provisions. She proved to be the Herald, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, U. S., out 27 months, and expecting to require to remain out 11 months longer, in order to complete her lading of oil and whalebone. She was last from St. Augustin's Bay (Madagascar), which place she had left two months previously. When the captain, who chanced to be in the boat, saw the activity of the scientific corps, the results of which were already beginning to be visible in the hitherto deserted island, he said that one of his crew had fallen from the mast a few days previously, and severely injured himself, and forthwith asked whether we could render him any surgical assistance. Considering the precarious circumstances under which we ourselves were on the island, we judged it more advisable to receive the unfortunate whaler on board the frigate, where we could give him all necessary assistance. As we afterwards learned, the surgeon of the frigate, Dr. Ruschitztha, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, was ordered from the frigate, and had the satisfaction of rendering valuable assistance to the invalid.

The foul weather continued all day, and during the night of the 21st, it became so tempestuous that the frigate was at last compelled to put to sea. About 3.30 a. m. she began to labour heavily with an unusually high sea and frequent shifts of wind, accompanied by showers of rain, after a heavy blow from the N.W., so that at first it was thought on board that one of these furious gusts, which for several hours past had followed each other at regular intervals, had sprung the cable, and that the anchor would be lost. The jib accordingly was hoisted, and the fore-topsail set with four reefs in it, and an attempt made to weigh anchor. This operation, at all times laborious, was now especially so, and seemed as though it would never have an end. Although the capstan was manned, as already said, at 3.30, it was not till past seven, or four hours later that the anchor hove in sight. It was the port anchor that had been weighed, and it was now perceived that one of the flukes had given way, and was entirely broken off. In such stormy weather it seemed very uncertain whether the anchor could be brought on board, as it struck with much force against the ship-side, in consequence of her severe rolling, and it was only secured at great risk to the life of the men employed. The cable was unbent, and the anchor slipped, so as to relieve the ship (for which the anchor still on board was sufficient in the meantime), from the vehement thumping. The frigate now had to encounter a regular North-wester, and only after three days of the most furious rolling or pitching, was she able, aided by northerly breezes, again to reach her former anchorage. The members of the Expedition, left at St. Paul to prosecute their scientific labours, occasionally experienced a somewhat peculiar feeling when the frigate, owing to the severity of the weather, remained invisible during these three long days; and fancy involuntarily depicted themselves in the position of men whom the stormy waves of destiny had cast away on this lonely island in the Indian Ocean, there perhaps to languish for weary months out of reach of assistance or means of rescue.

Old Viot, who had come for the sixth time to the island, alleged that such rainy tempestuous weather at this season of the year was quite an unusual phenomenon—an opinion which somewhat later was confirmed by the reports of several North American whalers. Ordinarily the fine season commences at the beginning of November, at which period the South wind is the most prevalent, the sky often remaining clear and hot for weeks together. The hottest month of the year is January, the coldest June. From May to October it is exceedingly difficult to land with boats on the island, and cases not unfrequently occur during the continuance of the stormy season resembling that which is instanced by the historiographer of Lord Macartney's embassy to China, in which, during September, 1792, a ship anchored on the east side of the island, was only able twice, during the lapse of eight weeks, to send a boat to the island with provisions. On this station the fishery is confined to the fine season (from November to April), while for the rest of the year the various huts of the fishermen are entirely abandoned, being only inhabited by a couple of men, in whose charge are left the few but by no means valueless implements and apparatus of the island. These men lead a very monotonous life, though not one of privation, for the crater-basin supplies the whole year round the most delicious fish, and craw-fish of the finest kind.

Our sailors used to hang a basket with bait close to the edge of the crater-basin, sunk a few feet in the water, which they would draw out every time full of lobsters. In a few hours they frequently caught from eighty to one hundred pounds' weight of these large and extremely delicate species of shell-fish. An excursion which was got up one morning to the South side of the island, in a fisherman's boat, was rewarded in a few hours with some fifty different sorts of denizens of the deep, some of which weighed twenty to twenty-five pounds each.

According to Viot's account, snow does not fall often in winter, and in consequence of the heat inherent in the volcanic soil, never lies long on it. On the other hand, hail is a tolerably frequent visitant. Rain is of constant occurrence, and sometimes falls in immense quantities. Viot was never weary of expressing his astonishment at the enormous size of the drops of rain which for many a year he had seen fall at St. Paul. The cold is often pretty severe; while the almost entire want of firing on the island (for the dung of animals is not obtainable in sufficient quantities to make its storing worth the requisite labour), deprives the poor residents of the comfort of a fireside. "If the last storm had not blown down our hut, we should for long have had to do without fuel," was the naïve remark on one occasion of the old Frenchman, as he lay stretched out on a dirty bed, carefully rolled up in his rough woollen blanket. Winter begins in May and ends in September. During this period the Northerly winds are often very strong. On 27th June, 1857, there blew for six or eight hours here so terrific a tempest that the inhabitants of St. Paul did not venture outside of their huts for fear of being rapt away by the wind. These storms of winter occasionally rage to such a degree that they drive before them into the basin of the crater huge masses of water, which they whirl in wild confusion to an enormous height, showing that the tract in the Southern Ocean traversed by the hurricanes which occasionally do such damage about Mauritius and Rodriguez, occasionally embraces the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam. In November, at the commencement of the fine season, the winds are rather variable, and so continue to the end of March, when the N. and N.W. winds begin once more to blow regularly; these bring heavy rains and foul weather, after which, except that it is cold when the wind changes to West with a Southerly tendency, a warmer and drier climate is experienced. During our stay we frequently had an opportunity of verifying by observation the steady return of certain winds in regular succession. For instance, after the N.E. wind had prevailed for some days, it veered to N.N.W. whence it invariably went to W. by S., where it usually stayed some little time, after which it once more went to N.E.—a phenomenon which went through its phases every six days with surprising regularity.

There are heavy mists during autumn, but thunder on the other hand is far from frequent, nor is it particularly violent when it occurs. During a residence of eighteen days we never saw the centigrade thermometer stand higher than 66°·2 Fahr., or lower than 53°·6 Fahr. Lord Macartney gave 62° Fahr. as the average of the thermometer during his visit in February, 1793.

As for earthquakes, a phenomenon whose occurrence at St. Paul would possess an uncommon interest, Viot averred that during sixteen years that he had visited the island, off and on, he neither himself had perceived any indications of one, nor had he at any time heard of any such having been observed.

On the contrary, Ferdinand (who, nevertheless, had lived but eight months on the island) affirmed that his predecessor, Rosemond, had told him of shocks, comparatively slight it is true, which he (Rosemond) had felt during his several years' abode here. Considering the small circumference of the island, and the violent surf on its shores, slight oscillations may not improbably be felt, which are caused by other than volcanic agencies. Moreover, on the outer margin of the crater-basin, the island presents at those numerous points, from which at ebb-tide roll volumes of smoke and steam, so many natural vents for the escape of the confined subterraneous gases, that in their ordinary state, and so long as they continue open, in future, there is no especial reason to suppose there will be any upheavings of the earth's crust in consequence of volcanic agencies. The earthquake of 14th August, 1857, which was pretty severely felt in Cape Town and the vicinity, does not seem to have included St. Paul within the circle of its influence. The present inhabitants of St. Paul, at all events, unanimously assert that they cannot recall having perceived, either on the 14th August, or at any time about that period, any shocks of earthquake whatever, or to have observed any unusual appearances either in the surface of the earth or in the atmosphere.

We purposely say "at any time about that period," because the inhabitants of the island do not avail themselves of that assistance so universal now-a-days of a printed calendar, but trust to memory for keeping a reckoning of the flight of time. That mistakes should frequently occur with such a method of computing time is rendered the more probable that not one of the three denizens of the island can write. For instance, we once remarked to our worthy Viot that by his own reckoning he had marked one day more than he had actually lived. "We always get into a mess with these confounded months of thirty-one days!" was the good-humoured reply of the ancient wanderer from Nantes.

Although the volcanic soil of St. Paul is everywhere especially adapted for scientific study, it nevertheless presents few objects with which to enrich collections of natural history. An island, on which not a single tree or bush is to be found, and on whose tufa soil, though well adapted for fruit, only a few grasses, ferns, and mosses thrive, must, so far as regards the value of his researches, prove as little interesting to the botanist as the zoologist, who, as we shall see more circumstantially further on, came across but few representatives here of the animated kingdom.

At several places, the practical gardener who accompanied the frigate was ordered to plant a number of European vegetables and anti-scorbutic plants, such as cabbage, horse-radish, turnips, of various assorted species, celery, garden-cress, and spoonwort,64 it is to be hoped with favourable results. At all events, we had the satisfaction during our stay, of seeing the tender shoots of some of the vegetables already sprouting through the surface of the earth. At that time there were not above a dozen or so cultivated spots on the Island; if, however, these are carefully cultivated, they can always furnish enough excellent nourishing provision for from 80 to 100 men. A quantity of potatoes, from 6 to 8 sacks, planted in June, yield, in January or February, a crop of from 60 to 80 casks of 100 lbs. each, or between 3 and 4 tons.

Wheat, maize, and barley, also thrive at St. Paul, and their cultivation has only been discontinued, in consequence of their conversion into bread requiring a much larger amount of fuel than is at the command of the residents. On the other hand, all attempts to cultivate beans and peas have utterly failed hitherto. All kinds of nutritive plants give but one crop in the year. So also several kinds of trees, which promised to grow well, considering the resemblance between the climate here and that to which they were indigenous—such as Pinus maritima, various kinds of Protea, &c., and the successful rearing of which would ultimately prove an extraordinary benefit to all who frequent the island, in consequence of the great scarcity of firewood—were planted as seedlings by the gardener attached to the Expedition, in the vicinity of the two huts used for the observations. Assuredly it will not be one of the least important benefits of the Novara Expedition, which it will have conferred on St. Paul, if the growth of the seedlings, planted in its soil with such a noble purpose in view, should result in the gradual and at all events partial clothing of the island in the forest.

As to the Fauna of St. Paul, there appears to be one kind of sea-swallow (storna) not hitherto described, the bill and feet of which are of a coral-red colour, and delicate silver-grey plumage, undoubtedly the most beautiful of the feathered inhabitants, as the penguin is the most extraordinary and peculiar creature on the island. Besides these there is also a pretty grey diver (Prion Vittatus), which builds its nest among the rocks; also a brown gull (Stercorarius antarcticus), as also three kinds of albatrosses (Diomedea exulans, D. fuliginosa, D. chlororhinchos).

The Crater-basin was somewhat less unproductive than the dry land. The depth is from 100 to 175 feet. Close to the edge, the sounding line gave a depth of 10 fathoms (60 feet). Experiments with the dredging-net, although frequently made, gave by no means satisfactory results. On the other hand, the rod and line brought up many an interesting addition to our collection, and frequent strolls at ebb-tide along the barely uncovered masses of rock that skirted the basin of the crater were rewarded with numerous discoveries of specimens of conchology. In the centre of the basin we came upon slimy ground at a depth of 204 feet; near the hot springs (about 100 feet distant), 19 fathoms (114 feet); and at a third point, on the south side, 23 fathoms (138 feet). Viot said, that after repeated soundings at different points, he had found the depth of the basin varied from 10 to 35 fathoms (60 to 210 feet). The seals (Arctocephalus Falclandicus) of which, according to Macartney, at the end of last century, thousands daily came to the coast of the island to bask in the sun, have almost entirely disappeared, so that these animals are very rarely seen or captured by the inhabitants. Even of the skeletons of these marine mammals, which, when the naturalists of the Lion were roaming through the island, used to lie about in such numbers that one could almost walk upon bones all round the crater, not a vestige is left, and one can hardly realize that formerly hundreds of thousands of these animals were slaughtered at this island.

Almost all the quadrupeds of the island are domestic animals that have been brought hither from Europe and the French colonies—such as swine, goats, cats, rabbits—which at present live here in a wild state. The goats, which were first introduced in 1844, are most numerous on the N.W. of the island; the swine, on the contrary, are not so frequently met with. During our residence, a boar and a wild cat were killed; a few days after, the five young of the cat were found, having been compelled to emerge from their lair in search of food. A female hare, which we had brought from Cape Town, was also set free on the island, and it was fortunate for the propagation of these useful animals that there was already a male hare on the island. A pair of geese was also presented to the colonists, which perhaps have continued to breed there.

As we thought the island was uninhabited, it was originally our intention to leave several kinds of domestic animals of different sexes with a view to propagation; and with that object, when at Cape Town had made various purchases of useful animals; but, under the circumstances, we relinquished this intention, as there seemed but little chance of their being left undisturbed sufficiently long to secure the desired object. Occasionally cows would be landed from the whalers for the sake of the fresh fodder, and taken away again after the lapse of a month or two.

The projected scientific operations of the Expedition might easily have been carried out within eight days, had we not been so obstinately persecuted with unfavourable weather. Violent north winds, which rendered it impossible to make any use of the surveying-board in the open air, alternated in an extraordinary manner with rainbows. Our astronomical observations were as yet nothing to speak of. Observations with the barometer, thermometer, current-measurer, and tide-guage, could alone be prosecuted, the last of which especially gave the following interesting result, that the hour of high water, both at full moon and new moon, is not 11 a. m., as given by Horsburgh (7th edition, Vol. I. p. 102), but at 1.10 p. m.65

The proper carrying out of the objects of the geognostic enquiries was hampered by unforeseen obstacles and difficulties. One day the rain would be so heavy, that the slight covering of our apartments would be insufficient to protect us any longer from the beating of the rain which fell in bucketsfull, and began to leak through innumerable seams and cracks on to the beds, tables, and floor. Did any one think to shelter himself in the hut of a neighbour?—ere long there commenced a regular emigration, which very speedily came to a conclusion, by each and all having the melancholy satisfaction of perceiving that Fortune had set to work with rigorous impartiality, and had resolved to let each one of us feel the weight of her displeasure. And so we passed the long dreary hours in our comfortless huts, that gave free entrance to wind and rain, with umbrellas outspread or wrapped in our India-rubber cloaks, gazing moodily at the numerous cases full of valuable instruments, which, instead of being serviceable to science, were, by the loss of so many splendid opportunities, doomed to inactivity.

RAINY DAY AT ST. PAUL.

Fortunately, all showed themselves animated by the utmost zeal for the undertaking and its successful issue; and, in a word, each fresh avalanche of difficulties, which sought to thwart our exertions and impair our forces, served only to reawaken the energies and reanimate the confidence of each and all amid all our calamities.

So soon as the hovel we inhabited, which had enabled us to make observations upon the direction and strength of the wind rather than secured us any accommodation for sleep, had been in some degree restored to its original condition, we availed ourselves of the slight improvement in the weather, to examine a tolerably numerous collection of very beautifully bound books, which were found stowed away in one of the recesses for books running into the four partitions, and had in all probability much to dread from the rain-water trickling through the covering of the roof. These had been brought hither by a former proprietor of the island, and when it was sold were transferred with the rest of the stock of tools, &c., to M. Ottovan, who occasionally resided at St. Paul for a month or two, but seemed, so far as the condition of the books went, rarely to meddle with them. It was curious enough, however, to encounter in a lone desert island, so many evidences of the most refined civilization, so we shall cite in a note some of the most interesting of this library of about 150 different works, which deserved a better fate than to moulder away undisturbed till they fell into dust.66

Less fortunate were we in our researches for any document which could in any way throw any light, direct or indirect, upon the former history of St. Paul. The only piece of writing which we found that had reference to the island, was a licence drawn up during the reign of Louis Philippe, dated 20th February, 1846, to M. Adam, of St. Denis (in the Island of Bourbon), to proceed to carry out a certain undertaking in the schooner "La Mouche," 30 tons' burthen, under the protection of the French flag. "La Mouche," is the same boat in which Viot had made so many voyages to and fro between St. Denis and St. Paul. This document, which the poor old Frenchman drew out one evening from a drawer thickly strewn with dust, insensibly led the conversation to the quondam owners of St. Paul, and thence naturally to an enquiry, on our part, as to the number of graves which dotted this romantic offshoot of Père la Chaise. "The climate is far too healthy, and the island far too little frequented, to admit of there being many graves in St. Paul," replied Viot. Of the blacks, whom M. Adam had once worked so unmercifully on the island, very many perished here owing to the severity of their treatment, but no one knows where their bodies lie;—very possibly their bones lie scattered about the island, like the remains of the much persecuted petrel (prion turton), which the predatory gull throws carelessly from him after he has stripped off the flesh, and gorged himself on the most delicate morsels. Only two graves are known to the present residents—one is the resting-place of an Englishwoman, who died on board a merchant-ship which happened to be near the island, and whose grave was dug in the earth on the north side of the crater-basin; the second covers the body of a ship captain, who was accidentally drowned in the basin by the upsetting of a small boat, as he was approaching the bar in heavy weather. His grave is at a short distance behind the huts of the colonists, and bears traces to this day of the solemn feelings with which it was erected; an enclosure of large stones neatly arranged, make the site and its object at once recognisable.

Shipwrecks are unheard of at St. Paul; at least, none such have been known to occur since it has been occupied by man. On the other hand, they are of more frequent occurrence at the sister island, as has very lately been evidenced by the catastrophe of the Meridian. However, the elements are not always to blame for such lamentable occurrences. Ships are sometimes dashed to pieces on the shores of Amsterdam in the finest weather, so that one is almost induced to believe that these misfortunes are occasionally resorted to intentionally, so as to realize some high insurance on a vessel which has probably already become half unseaworthy—a not very conscientious method of doing business, of which, however, some of the natives of Greece and the borders thereof are not unfrequently guilty. In February, 1855, a North American whaler struck upon the north-east side of Amsterdam in a calm, and with a clear sky overhead, so that the entire crew, 30 in number, were able to secure the provisions and their kits. The captain, with one of the ship's small boats, made for the Island of St. Paul, 42 miles distant, in the hope, probably, of getting assistance thence. A lucky destiny so willed it, that (the accident having occurred in the finest season of the year), a vessel of M. Ottovan's, which by a strange coincidence was named L'Ange Gardien (the Guardian Angel), lay at anchor inside the crater-basin, loading with fish. The shipwrecked crew were indebted to his circumstance that, within 14 days more, they found themselves at Mauritius. A report circulated among the residents of St. Paul that the captain of the stranded ship had landed with some of his companions in a boat on the N.E. of Amsterdam, with the intention of searching for a sum of several thousand dollars which a previous visitant to this island was said to have buried there for some mysterious reasons. While the captain was on shore, vainly searching for a considerable time after the buried treasure, the shipmaster left in charge in his absence came too near the island, whereupon the vessel had been lost upon one of the numerous reefs which lie off the shore. A part, it was added, of the buried money had, in fact, been recovered. According to Viot, the captain had dug up 1000 dollars (above £200), and one of his companions 300 dollars.

At last, on the morning of 3rd December—the fifteenth of our stay at the island—the sky shone so brightly that one could, with more probability than hitherto, cherish the hope that the various operations we had been compelled to lay aside might finally be brought uninterrupted to a successful conclusion. However, the very wet day was again exceedingly unfavourable for open-air observations, especially astronomical, inasmuch as a pretty strong North-east wind incessantly drove over the island clouds of rain, the very heaviest of which, attracted by the mass of the island, broke right over our heads. Fortunately this spell of bad weather did not last as long as the first; and when, on 6th December, the Novara once more made her appearance at the island, and enquired by signals as to the progress made in our appointed work, we were so fortunate as to be able to reply by the same means, that the most important portion had been completed, and that the officers and naturalists were ready to re-embark.

About 9 a. m., the frigate anchored in 25 fathoms, close to the spot where the English ship Fly, Captain Blackwood, lay in 1842. It was the third time that the Novara anchored off St. Paul. Twice before had she experienced unusually tempestuous weather, which compelled her to sheer off from such a perilous coast, and expose herself to be lashed for days together by the raging giant waves of the infuriated element.

One of the boats sent by the frigate to take us off to the ship, brought at the same time some presents, in memory of the Expedition, for the residents of the island, who had been so hospitable and obliging during our stay. The presents consisted of ship biscuit, salted meat, and various other edibles, wine, a musket, woollen blankets, clothes, shoes, tools, medicines, vinegar, oil, &c. The simple, modest fellows were immensely pleased with these unexpected presents, and Viot especially seemed overjoyed on seeing a number of tools, for want of which many of the repairs necessary in the interior of their anything but air-tight wooden habitations, were daily becoming more apparent.

We left a book on the Island of St. Paul, in which the principal memoranda of what we had achieved were set forth in three languages (German, English, and French), with the view of supplying to future scientific visitors, data for further researches and observations, and at same time incite them to prosecute these we had ourselves made.

We insert here this document, which will yet give witness, probably, of the scientific activity of the Austrian Expedition at the Island of St. Paul in the Indian Ocean, at a period when those engaged in it will long since have voyaged to

"That undiscovered country from whose bourne

No traveller returns."

"The Imperial Austrian Frigate, Novara, 44, under the command of Commodore the Chevalier von Wüllerstorf-Urbair, engaged in a voyage round the globe for scientific purposes, anchored at nine in the morning of 19th November, 1857, on the Eastern side of St. Paul, with the purpose of prosecuting astronomical, magnetic, meteorological, and geodesical observations and measurements, and at same time examine thoroughly the natural history of the island. Extremely unfavourable weather in great measure delayed the expedition; and, after having successfully carried out a series of observations and researches, the results of which will in due time be published, the officers and naturalists in charge of the various departments, on the 6th December of the same year, quitted St. Paul, each bearing with him the most pleasing reminiscences of that interesting island, and of its three poor, but eminently kind inhabitants.

"For the guidance of future observers the following memoranda may prove useful:—

"I. That the spot at which observations were taken was on a small eminence, north of the huts of the colonists, and which may be recognized by a small pyramid of stones, on which the Austrian Expedition marked the observed latitude 38° 42′ 55″ S., and the longitude 77° 31′ 18″ E. of Greenwich.67 Further that:—

"II. That the direction of the true meridian line drawn from this point to the nearest opposite shore of the South side of the crater-basin was marked by an oblique (St. Andrew's) cross.

"III. That the tidal-gauge was situated on a rock near the landing-place, and that the rise of the tide above the mean level of the water (3 feet 5 inches), was marked on a slab of rock smoothed for the purpose.

"IV. Lastly. The magnetic observations were taken in a hut erected for that express purpose on the little plateau behind the settlers' huts, where at the same time various sorts of useful trees were planted by the Expedition.

"The names of the officers and naturalists who, under the superintendence of the commander of the Imperial Expedition, took part in the various scientific operations were:—for Astronomy and Terrestrial Magnetism, Lieutenant Robert Müllar; Botany, Dr. Edward Schwarz and M. Jellinck; Geodesy and Meteorology, Lieutenant Eugen Kronowetter; for the Trigonometrical Measurement of the Crater-basin, Lieutenant Gustavus Battlogg; for Geology, Dr. Ferdinand Hochstetter; Ethnology and Physical Geography, Dr. Karl Scherzer; Zoology, G. Frauenfeld and J. Zelebor; Draughtsman and Artist, Joseph Sellemy."

PLATE V.—TRACK FROM ST. PAUL TO POINT DE GALLE. (CEYLON).

Towards 5 p. m. the last boat came off with the measuring and levelling instruments, and various articles of baggage.68 The embarkation was finally completed. Half-an-hour later the Novara weighed anchor, and we steered, favoured with most splendid weather and full of pleasing anticipations, for the adjacent island of New Amsterdam. Not without sundry twitches of sadness did we remark the sharp crater of St. Paul gradually fade away like a vision in the gloom of approaching night; and many undying memories must attach to our residence on that lonely, world-forsaken island.

And now, at the moment of our departure from the island, be it permitted us to cast a retrospective glance at the various results obtained by the Expedition of the Novara during her stay at St. Paul.

Never hitherto on this island, so important by its geographical position for ships trading with China, the East Indies, Australia, and New Zealand, have astronomical and magnetic observations and geodesical measurements been so thoroughly ascertained as by the Novara expedition. Upon a carefully measured base-line, various points of the upper and lower margin of the crater were accurately laid down by means of the Theodolite, and the whole island submitted to a geometric network of angles. At the same time the geologist, with the aid of the compass and the patent levels, prepared a chart originally intended for geological purposes only, while the draughtsman of the expedition added to its value, by skilfully sketching in from these given points the configuration of the coast-line of the island. By their united efforts there has been published a chart of St. Paul, which gives even to the minutest details an entirely correct and accurate representation of the form and surface of the island. This minute chart, or plan, was prepared on a scale of 132 Vienna fathoms to one Vienna inch, or ¹⁄₉₅₀₄ of the natural size. Moreover, it is intended preparing, from this map and from the various outlines and views taken on the spot, a plastic model of the island after Nature, which, moulded in gypsum, will give scientific inquirers the most accurate conception of its singular structure. Not less interesting for navigators in the Indian Ocean will be the publication of the various observations which, during our stay of 18 days, were made with the barometer, thermometer, tide-gauge, and gauge of the velocity of currents, taken at certain fixed hours, day and night, as also the soundings in the crater-basin, and on both sides of the bar. Although the complete publication of these data must await the appearance of the nautical portion of the present work, we shall give here the most important of these results. The extreme length of the island from N.W. to S.E., is three nautical miles; the superficial area is 1,600,000 Vienna square klafter—1 Vienna klafter = 1 fathom = 6 English feet—100 English square feet = 92 ⁹⁸⁶⁄₁₀₀₀ Vienna square feet. The highest point of the crater-basin is 846 feet; the greatest diameter of the upper rim of the crater is 5490 feet; the least 4590 feet; the greatest diameter of the basin at the level of the sea is 3984 feet, and the least 3444 Vienna feet.

The observations on the state of the weather, taken with much difficulty, are not intended to include the regular observations on the exterior of the island, and in like manner some of those taken in the harbour, or basin of the crater, must be accepted with a certain limitation. For similar reasons, we were unable to fix the rate of the current setting from the sea into the basin, although we secured most extraordinary results considering the circumstances. The amount of specimens of natural history which was procured, was very limited, but on that account was the more valuable. To the geologist, it must be of the very highest interest to find that St. Paul has been classified, with scientific precision, and by dint of personal examination and research, in one of the four main divisions in which, according to the scheme of Alexander Von Humboldt, the volcanic formations of the earth may be divided. Measured by the latest distribution of the volcanic strata by the description of stone found, as laid down by the greatest of German naturalists, St. Paul belongs to the same class as Chimborazo, Popocatepetl, Teneriffe, &c., in a word, to what is known as the Chimborazo formation. A section of the east-side, taken in profile, lays bare its entire geological history, and forms one of the most instructive means of coming to direct conclusions as to its geological structure.

The birth of this island from the bosom of the deep, combined with eruptions of lava and scoriæ, was the last effort of the subterranean forces. Since that period it has been subject wholly and solely to the various terrestrial influences, although the lapse of centuries has not been able to extirpate the last traces of the volcanic fire which once poured forth its currents of molten lava. A large proportion of the level ground is hot, and at the lower edge of the rim of the crater appear several hot springs, the temperature of which, as already remarked, is so high that fish, eggs, potatoes, &c., can be cooked on them in a few minutes. The highest point of St. Paul rises 870 feet above the basin of the crater. Its walls rise abruptly at an angle of about 85°, while the upper surface of the island (with the single exception of a small plateau of about 400 feet on the north side) stretches, at first level from the periphery of the upper margin of the crater, gradually falling away towards the sea-coast, at an angle of about 13°. On its North-west coast, where it is from 100 to 200 feet in perpendicular height, the island presents several small pyramids of pumice, like parasitic warts on the principal mass.

Like the geologist, the botanist also found in this wild spot an unusual opportunity of acquiring accurate information as to the occurrence and propagation of certain kinds of plants in a primitive soil. Six grasses and one reed (cyperaceæ) form the vegetation of the island, one rush and three or four of the grasses forming the majority. The botanist having ascended to the plateau found there two grasses, both of which grew to a certain height only, and at certain places; the one (in the immediate vicinity of the settler's huts,) the oat, or avena; the second a digitaria, in the neighbourhood of the terraced fields, directly opposite the entrance to the crater, in warm positions, which, so soon as the earth is a little disturbed, emit jets of steam. It is still uncertain whether the other kinds of grass, Poa and Setaria Holcus, belong exclusively to St. Paul, or are to be included in the more general group of geographical plants known as that of the islands of Edward's Island, Kerguelen's Island, and St. Paul.

Among the grasses there spring up here and there, but on the whole very sparsely, some wild vegetables which have been planted by previous chance visitors.69 In the crater there are also Sonchus arvensis and one Plantago (Plantain). On the south margin of the crater are Cerastium (maize-ear chickweed), and Stellaria media (chickweed); both grow on a small piece of ground, and are far from thriving. Of Cryptogamia the botanist found four sorts. Two Parmelias, one Evernia, and one Cladonia, the first-named overrunning the blocks on the edge of the crater with great luxuriance.

Of Algæ there were found 33 species. The stones rolled backwards and forwards by the action of the waves, as also those surfaces which remained covered at lowest tide, were entirely covered with Dicurella flabellata. Most numerous was Gigartina radula, just in a state of fructification. Every movement of the water calls up slender, delicate confervæ, and pale and coloured luminariæ. The breakers have crowned the stones with festoons of the Macrocystis pyrifera. Of Liverworts there were found Marchantia and Jungermania; of foliaceous mosses, Sphagnum (bog-moss), and two kinds of Bruym. Two ferns, just beginning to bear fruit, were found on the plateau, and one Lycopodium (club-moss), which thrives pretty well, and frequently grows on the Sphagnum. On the whole, the botanist of the expedition found on the island, 11 Phanerogamia, 4 Lichens, 33 Algæ, 2 ferns, 2 Liverworts, 3 foliaceous mosses, 1 Lycopodium. In this enumeration are included the European vegetables cultivated by the residents, as also some untended plants, which apparently have been introduced with the vegetables, or have been brought hither by previous visitors. The stony substratum of this island is barely covered with a plastic vegetable substance, which fills the cracks. The walls of the crater, as also the entire plateau, present to view a plain, unrelieved expanse of grass; not, however, like fields clothed with sward, but single tufts pressing one upon the other, which seem like the grave-mounds of a hundred bygone generations of plants. Frequently, at the foot of a block of pumice, all overrun with grasses of all sorts, one comes upon a moss or a stem of fern on one of the pieces of lava that has been washed up, or perceives with amazement in some out-of-the-way place, and utterly neglected, good old acquaintances from Europe, such as carrots, parsley, potatoes, &c., which apparently have been begun to be cultivated on some of the terraces, whence they have propagated themselves in a wild state all over the island. But not a tree, or bush, is to be met with throughout the island.

In like manner, although the zoologist seemed to have but a poor prospect at St. Paul, it presented materials for most satisfactory speculation to the attentive naturalist. Only one of the grasses is infested by an insect, which appears in great numbers, a very tiny cicada (cricket), the Delphis hemiptera, of which, according to the zoologist of the expedition, it is hard to say whether it became indigenous to St. Paul before, or contemporaneous with the arrival of man. Among other insects that have certainly been introduced here, the zoologist found the common bluebottle-fly, a gnat, the universally found cockroach, the book-tick (acarus eruditus), one kind of earwig, and the flea; besides the Isopodis, our common barrel-worm,70 in almost fabulous quantities. These animals invariably follow man wherever he plants his foot, living upon garbage or decaying organic matter. With the exception of the clothes-moth, which has probably been introduced among the wool-stuffs, there are in the island no butterflies, none of the been tribe, no Neuroptera. Mites also need scarcely be reckoned, since the only representative, the common cheese-mite, is more apt to become extinct than to thrive; on the other hand, there are two kinds of spiders, for which the enormous number of flies furnish sufficient food.

The species belonging to the sea are somewhat more plentifully represented, although, with few exceptions, very small and insignificant. The largest shell fish, a Tritonium, only attains a length of 3 inches; Patella, which is very plentiful all round the island, is only 1 inch long; several sorts of snails (such as Buccinum, Defrancia, Mangelia, Paludinella, Adeorbis, Janthina, Fissurella, Scutellina, Lepidopleurus, Bulla, Asteronotus, Doto), are barely a few lines in length, or even less.

The Brachiopoda are represented by a very inferior member, the Terebratulina, only two lines long, which, however, is a giant compared with one of the two only kinds of mussel, Kellia and Lima, which are occasionally met with here, and are only half-a-line in length.

Among the Vertebratæ, the fishery of which is the principal object of the visits annually paid to the island, one, the Cheilodactylus, a spinous-finned fish, which is extraordinarily abundant all round the island, supports an important fishery, while Thyrsites Atun were frequently caught with rod and line from the frigate.

Of Amphibiæ, there is not a vestige to be found on the island; the birds belong for the most part to the powerful-winged web-footed birds that frequent the open ocean, as, for example, the Diomedea exulans (great albatross or man-of-war bird), D. chlororhynchus (yellow-billed albatross), D. fuliginosa (a new one not determined), Lestris catarractes, Storna sp: Prion Vittatus, of which the four last-named, at the time of our visit, had both eggs and young. Of birds with fin-shaped wings, there was the golden-crested penguin (Apterodytes chrysocoma S.), living in two distinct colonies among the precipitous overhanging cliffs, with innumerable young, already of a pretty good size.71 We also remarked several other winged denizens of the deep, which had alighted on our ship during the last few days immediately preceding our arrival at St. Paul. According to the fishery-people, the other birds of the island quit it altogether so soon as their young have grown sufficiently, and only return when the next breeding season comes round.

In contradistinction to the sea-birds, M. Frauenfeld remarked but one single land-bird, a swallow, whose movements seemed to indicate that he was watching a breeding female. A stray bird on this lonely spot of earth, nearly 3000 miles away from the main land! Hundreds of questions suggested themselves on thus unexpectedly coming upon so well-known a wanderer. What could have condemned him to this self-imposed exile? Was he a straggler? Was it the first time he had selected this island for a home? Had it been his own cradle? And would he at some future period find companions to visit with him, and ultimately share these solitary desolate abodes?

There were no seals visible—they have retreated before the attacks and stratagems of their insatiate pursuer the seal-hunter, and for a long period have ceased to frequent the island. Indeed, St. Paul furnishes not a single specimen of mammal peculiar to itself; for all the members of this great natural division at present on it—such as goats, swine, cats, &c.—having become wild, must necessarily be classed, however unusual, with rats, mice, and the like. In other respects, all these have not varied in the slightest from the type of the domesticated animal (although they have probably lived wild for a hundred years past), except that they are very shy and avoid the presence of man.

While upon these various points, the stay of the Imperial Expedition at St. Paul gave many splendid results by means of observations and scientific collections, it was also productive of a number of important practical benefits for seafaring people. The geodesical results, for instance, obtained by the Expedition, demonstrate that there is formed by the basin of the crater at St. Paul's, despite the small extent of its coast-line, a secure natural haven which would afford substantial facilities for ships, to which, on their voyage to China, Australia, or anywhere in the East Indies, any accident has happened, necessitating complete and speedy repair, or which might require fresh provisions for their crews, stricken with scurvy after a long voyage. For, although the depth of the basin of the crater in the centre is very considerable, and although the squalls of wind from the N.W. are often very violent, the ship can always make fast to the land, and so ensure the requisite security. How far the assistance so cheerfully rendered by science may have been called for, or how far the route at present traversed by sailing vessels makes that assistance desirable, must be left to the judgment of those nations, such as the English, French, and Dutch, which, as having possessions washed by the Indian Ocean, have a direct interest in the future condition of such a harbour of refuge, situate equidistant from Asia, Africa, and Australia.

The morning after our departure from St. Paul, that is to say, on 7th Dec., we found ourselves not more than ten miles distant from Amsterdam. The first view of the island greatly resembles that of St. Paul, and the hypothesis gained constantly in probability that the geological formation of Amsterdam is nearly identical with that of St. Paul.

A whaler was cruising in the neighbourhood of the island, while one of his slim whaleboats was pursuing a school of sperm whales, which sported about in great numbers.

Towards 7 a. m., a boat approached from the whaler Esmeralda, Captain Pierce, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, to ask for surgical assistance for a sailor who, while engaged a few days previously in hauling a captured fish alongside, had had his left hand so severely injured by one of the lines, that amputation had seemed the sole remedy. The Captain had, in genuine Yankee fashion, assumed the duties of surgeon, and performed the operation himself. Now that it was over, and when neither praise nor censure could benefit the patient, he was anxious to know whether he had done right or wrong. While one of the ship's surgeons was getting ready, as requested by the captain, to proceed to the bedside of his patient, the whaler informed us he had already been absent from his family in the States five months, and would proceed hence to the Sandwich Islands and the Northern grounds, and finally return home round Cape Horn. If the take of fish proved good, he hoped to complete the voyage within two years. Whale-fishing, in truth, is not only a very dangerous and laborious, but also a most precarious pursuit. Occasionally a ship gets loaded within a brief space with oil and whalebone, by which, of course, the owner or charterer makes a splendid profit, and the entire crew obtain a handsome share. But frequently does it happen that, after a voyage of fifteen months and more, there is not a single fish taken, in which case the hardy sailors, who are entirely dependent for their pay upon a share of the spoil, have had all their labour and undergone all their privations in vain, while the freighter is poorer by a good round sum. The bare chance, however, of a rich haul is sufficient to raise to 8000, the number (probably on the increase) of the ships of varying tonnage and nationality, which at present encounter the anxieties, dangers, and hardships attaching to the whale-fishery. It is calculated that, were it possible to anchor them within signalling distance of each other, they would form a complete girdle round the earth at the Equator. In other respects, the incessant activity of the whaler is not without its advantages for science, since the observations and communications of many of the captains connected with the whaling business have essentially contributed to extend our acquaintance with atmospheric phenomena, especially in high latitudes, on both sides of the Equator.

The loquacious captain, an uncommon quality in a Yankee, could not conceal his astonishment at encountering an Austrian man-of-war in such a latitude in mid-ocean, and adverted to this unexpected phenomenon. Captain Pierce further complained bitterly of the weather, and said that, as long as he had sailed the Indian Ocean, he had never at this season experienced such tempestuous weather as during the last week; which was further confirmed by several other whalers, regular visitors to these waters. Respecting Amsterdam, Captain Pierce, unfortunately, could give us but very little information. He had never set foot on the island, nor did he know whether it was accessible at all. But he spoke highly of the availability of the coasts for valuable fish. Nowhere in the Indian Ocean, the Captain remarked, was there such an abundance of fish of all descriptions as at the Southernmost point of this little-known island. Consequently most whalers, on their course Southwards, approach this island, and send out boats to bring in supplies of fish suitable for the table. Usually the boat is filled in a few hours with delicious food caught with the rod and line, when the fish are forthwith salted, in sufficient quantities to supply the crew for several weeks.

Is Amsterdam really a sister-island of St. Paul? Is it, too, of volcanic origin, upheaved by the same subterranean energy, and does it still show similar traces of long-continued activity? These questions pressed on us for solution all the more vividly as we neared this inaccessible island, when we recalled to mind the mysterious phenomena which D'Entrecasteaux had observed here in March, 1792, and which have remained unexplained to this day.72 The French Expedition saw, it is true, clouds of smoke emerging alternately from a subterranean opening close to the shore, but without being able to satisfy themselves whether the vegetation had been set on fire by the hand of man or by volcanic action, the wind which blew direct from the island making it impossible to land, unless one was prepared to run the risk of being suffocated by the rolling masses of smoke. There was, therefore, to be solved, at Amsterdam, the mystery as to whether the pillars of smoke, which were observed by the naturalists of the French Expedition of 1792, issuing from the soil adjoining the sea, were produced by an actual eruption, or were caused by subterranean fires in activity.73

About 11 a. m., the two jolly-boats of the Novara were lowered to look for a landing-place on Amsterdam, while the frigate stood off and on, under easy sail, at an offing of five or six miles. Our whaling informant had told us the most abundant fishing-station was at the south point of the island, while the best place for disembarking was on the N.W. shore. As, however, upon consideration, it was deemed advisable, looking to the probability of a N.E. gale springing up, to get to windward of the ship, so as to be able to fetch her more speedily on our return, the S.E. side was selected, and our course laid for it accordingly. Along the acclivities of the coast pyramids of loose stones were visible, resembling those on St. Paul, but more numerous and of larger dimensions, the entire island seeming altogether on a much larger scale, and more lofty. On the West side we observed rocky precipices of from 1000 to 2000 feet in height, fissured with deep clefts and rents, whereas on the South and S.E., these presented a more gradual slope.

For above an hour we steered along the shore, which rose sheer out of the water, without being able to detect a single point at which it was at all practicable to disembark, so as to scramble up to the high ground. The entire Eastern side is hemmed around with steep abrupt precipices of 150 to 200 feet high, not unlike skilfully-erected bastions, and clothed with long thick grass.

As we drew near, we could plainly discern in the water-courses that descend upon the upper slope—radiating, as it were, from all sides of the highest peak, which was enveloped in clouds—numerous streams of water, each pouring through a rift like a thread of silver, after which, precipitating itself over the steep precipices on the shore, it washed like a small torrent over terraces and banks of lava, till it was lost in the sea. If these streams are swollen by the heavy rain in winter, they may form waterfalls, as mentioned by early navigators, which must impart a far less pleasing character to the landscape. Two small patches of dazzling white, like fresh fallen snow, which were visible high above the slope, we could not make out with the utmost power of our glasses. The green colour which enveloped the entire island seemed to indicate the existence of grass vegetation resembling that of St. Paul.

At last, when we had got within two cables' length of the shore, we encountered enormous green flakes of floating sea-weed, which, becoming entangled with the rudder, made further progress possible only by dint of most strenuous exertions. This proved to be the same gigantic sea-tangle of the Southern hemispheres (Macrocystis Pyrifera), which likewise constitutes a barrier of fucus on the East side of St. Paul. The sea-calves mentioned by older describers were nowhere to be seen; but on the other hand we had an opportunity of satisfying ourselves as to the immense abundance of fish which frequent the coast of the island in a truly astonishing degree, although the American whaler had prepared us by his remarks. From bow and stern of the boat hooks and lines were hung out, and several of the crew were at once kept busy hauling in the lines, at the end of each of which there usually struggled a fish of some two or three feet long. These were chiefly umber fish, which are also very plentiful about St. Paul, where, from their delicacy, they formed a favourite dish at our otherwise very frugal repasts.

We had now got so near, that we could distinctly perceive grass and the stems of ferns growing among the clefts of the rocks. However, although there was a dead calm, and the sea outside was as smooth as glass, the long ground-swell of the ocean, with its broad flat billows, caused such a heavy surf on the rock-bound stony beach, that the attempt to pass it was not to be thought of. The further we advanced along the coast in a northernly direction, the more distant we got from the ship, and unluckily in an equal degree our hopes were disappointed of finding a spot at which we could land, and scramble from the strand up the steep bank to the level ground above. The south-easternmost point, which at a distance presented the appearance of a low headland jutting out into the sea, behind which we had hoped to find a good landing-place, now that we had got close to it, proved to be a small detached rock; while the shore, as far as the eye could reach, rose like a wall to a height of from 150 to 200 feet. There now hove in sight five whalers, who seemed hunting that most valuable of all the inhabitants of the deep, of the spots frequented by which Maury's renowned Whale Charts have lately supplied so interesting and useful a code of instruction. These charts, which are based on a vast number of observations, of the tracts of ocean and seasons of the year at which whales are most frequently seen, will at the same time greatly tend to a solution of the question as to the migration of these enormous mammals; for it has never yet been settled, whether these animals flee from the pursuit of man to remote seas, thus continually constraining their pursuers to seek their prey in new waters, or whether, (as is the most prevalent opinion), they are always entirely extirpated from one locality, and accordingly are only to be met with in any numbers in some different area, in which man has as yet only rarely, if ever, disturbed them.74

After an hour-and-a-half of continuous rowing, and when, in our very unsuitable boat, we had got about 7 nautical miles distant from the frigate, we at last found a smooth spot between two reefs, which projected above the level of the sea like a breakwater, and at once let go the boat's anchor. A regular landing-place, however, was not to be hoped for at this point. It was necessary first to make a spring to a block of rock, and thence, picking one's way among stones rendered slippery by being covered at flood-tide, endeavour to reach the beach. This we all succeeded in accomplishing over the rough rocks, without any mischance, and at last we stood on the firm soil of the Island of Amsterdam, at a spot which assuredly had never before been trodden by human feet, unless by some castaway. For only in consequence of the sea being perfectly calm, which at this season was quite unusual, were we able to reach the shore at this point.

What a scene of wildest desolation, and inaccessible solitude now met our gaze! Around us nothing but huge blocks of basalt, some rolled about by the breakers, and so slippery with half-dry algæ, that one was in danger of falling at every stride; others with their angles and indentations as sharp, as when first violently torn from their original bed; and behind these gigantic blocks, a perpendicular wall of rock rising 200 feet sheer, composed of a schistus of basaltic lava lying regularly and horizontally one over the other, intermixed with red or brown slag, and yellow tufa. Immense holes and cavities in the rocky wall, as also the empty spaces between the broken blocks that had fallen down, and the vast air-holes scooped out in the lava beds, furnished an undisturbed nestling-place for flocks of a beautiful sea-swallow, with glossy black head, silver-grey body, and bill and feet of carmine red—the most elegant and attractive contrast of colours that can well be imagined upon any bird. These pretty creatures afforded great amusement to the sportsmen of our little party, while the geologist acquired a better idea and more information as to the mineralogy and geognosis of the island beneath the steep wall of rock, than he could have obtained above, where all seemed to be covered with thick green grass. But the botanist and zoologist found but little to repay their search on the beach. The same Algæ, the same grasses, the same patellæ (limpets), as at St. Paul, even to the same caterpillars swarming upon every tuft of grass in numberless quantities. At several points, fresh, perfectly good, sweet spring-water trickled down from the heights, and we could thus confirm the relations of former explorers, that the island contains fresh water; but whether it can be got at, still remains a very uncertain question. As we were convinced, after several examinations and much exertion, that to ascend the precipice from this spot was impossible, it was resolved, after the men had rested, and a few observations had been made with the sextant, to re-embark and endeavour to find a more suitable spot for disembarking.

We quitted this first spot about 2 p. m., and continued to steer along the coast in a N.E. direction. The character of the scenery remained almost unaltered. The steep shore wall indeed dipped somewhat occasionally, but it was never less than 100 feet above the level of the sea. At various points there appeared, as at St. Paul, between the tufa strata, black veins of basalt, and fragments of scoriæ, lying upon reddish-brown slag. Our curiosity, however, was especially excited by the appearance of small trees and low bushes. At first, while we were yet at some distance, we could barely distinguish a few dark, clear, green spots amid the universal dull olive appearance of the vegetation that covered the island; now that we were keeping closer in, we plainly saw small trees, which seemed most to resemble forests of pine, as also what appeared to be thick close brushwood of a light green colour, with which large patches of the middle and lower slopes of the island were covered. In vain did we watch for some spot in this singular island at which we might land and climb; at length, after steering several miles further along the coast, and passing several promontories advancing from the island, and numerous isolated rocks, we came, towards 3.30 p. m., upon a number of lava-blocks that had fallen from above, and, forming a sort of dam or bulwark between the sea and the shore, seemed to render disembarkation possible. The boat's anchor was again dropped, and we proceeded to make for the shore by dint of jumping, as before, from rock to rock; a method of reaching land more agreeable and better suited to penguins than decorous philosophers!

Among the rocks on the strand lie fragments of shipwrecked vessels—pieces of masts and yards—dumb witnesses of human disaster, and suffering, and death! At this point the shore was not very steep. The masses of rock piled here on each other in wild confusion, made our ascent more practicable than at our former landing-place, though perhaps they necessitated greater circumspection. Dr. Hochstetter and M. Zelebor, as also Lieutenant Kronowetter, and a sailor, started for the height. A ridge, grown over with grass and rushes, and forming a line of communication between the upper and lower portions of the island, seemed the most accessible point. at which to mount to the high ground above. At first the path led over the colossal rampart of broken rocks and through the surf, after which came clumps of rushes and clods, in which the former grew, and thence upwards over masses of slag. It was a regular Sisyphean task. On the loose rolling débris beneath the feet, for every five feet forwards, one slipped four backward, so that to climb this height of little over 100 feet, took nearly a whole hour. At last the adventurous scramblers stood on the top of the island, on a small bare cone of scoriæ, whence they were able to overlook a portion of the ground. Dense rush-like grass, as high as a man, thickly covered the entire surface—half-withered, half of a lively green; here broken short off by wind and rain, there still standing erect. Further progress was not to be thought of, not even as far as the green clump of bushes which had already been observed from the boat, although it was scarcely a hundred paces distant, on the surface of the declivity, and although a closer examination promised to afford many interesting details as to the vegetation on the island. It would have been necessary to make one's way either through heaps of withered rushes, requiring to be broken down at every moment, or across thick, matted, fresh, slippery grass, in order to get anywhere near the copse that resembled the pinewood. Moreover, owing to the short allowance of daylight that remained, both were for the present inaccessible.75 Evening was coming on, and it was necessary to think of our return, as we were at a distance of at least eight miles from the frigate. With the help of pocket-handkerchiefs, which they had tied to the reeds, the explorers readily found again the place at which they had ascended, and now speedily returned to the improvised landing-place, where, meanwhile, the naturalists that had remained behind had occupied themselves with collecting specimens on the beach, and amid the surrounding rocks. A singular spectacle now presented itself to the astonished view. A couple of lucifer matches that had been thrown aside without further thought, had burst into flames amid the parched rush beds, and dense volumes of black smoke forthwith rose upon the surface of the island. The fire speedily spreading among the thick dry grass, soon assumed a formidable breadth, and ere long a considerable portion of the east coast of the island was in a light flame. There was now presented to the members of the Novara expedition, the same spectacle as that witnessed by the naturalists of the Recherche, when D'Entrecasteaux passed here some sixty years before. It may safely be assumed that the fire, and the thick wreaths of smoke then visible were like those of to-day, the result of man's hands, and not of subterranean forces—in fact, kindled in all probability by fishermen, who were clearing this uninhabitable island of the close impervious brushwood that so greatly impedes locomotion, and were rendering it capable of being traversed, as well as susceptible of cultivation. During the night of 7th and 8th December, 1857, the sky was clear and cloudless, and the flames crackled and leaped high above the beach, in an elliptical area, which must have measured a couple of miles in its major axis. A dense, copper-coloured, luminous cloud of smoke rose straight into the air, where it spread out horizontally, till at last a long trail of smoke stretched in a S.E. direction to the farthest horizon, entirely covering the upper part of the island. About 2 a. m., according to the report of the officer of the watch, the spectacle was still more grand and imposing. The conflagration at that time extended over an immense surface, so that the imagination might naturally enough be disposed to regard this as the bursting forth of the pent-up flames of a volcano, with the usual accompaniments of red-hot streams of lava, clouds of floating ashes, and pillars of flame mounting to heaven.

Fortunately, this gigantic conflagration must have done far more good than harm to this desolate island, covered as it was for the most part with reeds, since, without destroying any of the vegetation that could be of service to man, it will greatly facilitate examination by future voyagers, and adapt it for settlement by fishers and others, who at present seem to leave it utterly abandoned.

Towards 6 p. m., as it was already getting dark, our two boats set out on their return to the frigate, from which in the course of the day they had been distant about fifteen miles. However a fresh Northerly breeze having sprung up we were able to make sail, and at 7.30 p. m. once more reached the frigate, when we were received with a storm of questions, principally turning upon the mysterious far-visible conflagration—which had been kindled by a couple of humble Vienna lucifers! During our visit to the island a variety of observations were also made on board the frigate, to obtain the position of Amsterdam, as also to determine the elevation of the most prominent peaks of the island, and the outline of the shore. The results of these gave the following: latitude 37° 58′ 30″ S.; longitude, 77° 34,' 44″ E. of Greenwich; elevation of the highest summit (nearly corresponding with previous observations), 2891 English feet; of the second highest, 2651 feet; the length of the South coast, as measured from the frigate, 32,359 feet; of the Western shore, 5507 feet.

There was still some faint hope that we might visit the island next day. However, during the night the wind sprung up, the weather became variable, and we saw ourselves compelled to renounce our cherished desire to investigate the island thoroughly, the rather that, owing to the unpropitious weather during the last few weeks, the stay of the Novara in these latitudes had been prolonged so considerably beyond the period fixed, that no more time could be spared, if it were desirous to avoid sacrificing the objects of the Expedition with reference to other and more important departments of scientific enquiry, by engaging in them at a season in all probability highly unfavourable for the purpose.

Consequently our observations in Amsterdam remained most imperfect; although the geologist of the expedition was enabled to clear up the uncertainty hitherto prevailing as to the geological structure of the island, and to determine upon scientific data, that Amsterdam is an extinct volcanic cone, of precisely the same character, and belonging to the same order of volcanic formation as the sister island of St. Paul; that it probably contains on itself all the usual indications of its volcanic origin, and that its upheaval probably took place at the same period. On the other hand, the naturalist regretted to see slip the opportunity so rarely vouchsafed, of instituting a comparison between the respective vegetations of these islands, and of making evident how, simultaneously with the advance of a more luxuriant, and more multiform vegetable organization, there also appears an entirely new race of animals, and how closely allied in the economy of nature is the existence of individual specimens with certain fixed pre-existent types. In any case St. Paul, which we enjoyed an opportunity of examining in the utmost detail, is, of the two islands, the most important to the commerce of the world, not merely as a finger-post on the most frequented deep-sea route in the Indian Ocean, but also as a haven of refuge for ships and crews. Already the crater-basin of St. Paul has served in case of need as a desirable asylum for ships that are half unseaworthy. Not many years since an English man-of-war steamer came to St. Paul, after a severe storm in the Indian Ocean, during which her engine broke down, and her rudder was knocked away, after which she, for twelve days, was steered by a temporary rudder. The vessel, after discharging the heaviest part of her equipment, was easily brought into the interior of the crater-basin, and was there hove down for several months on the Northern barrier, undergoing repairs.

On the 8th December, about 4 a. m., only a dark cloud of smoke in the distant cloudless horizon indicated the position of Amsterdam. The island itself, properly speaking, was actually out of sight, for a fresh N.W. breeze had driven us merrily along during the night. The last hope was now dissipated of being able to obtain a view of the North side of Amsterdam. We were now rapidly approaching the region of the S.E. Trades. The breeze freshened and crept gradually to the West, thence to the South, and finally to the Eastward. This veering of the wind proved to be a fore-runner of the Trades, which we got into on 14th December, in S. latitude 28° 1′, E. longitude 85°.

On that day a merchantman hove in sight, which, with favouring breezes and all sail set, soon bore down on us. She came down without any flag, and stood right across our bows at so short a distance that we could plainly read her name—the Bunker's Hill, of Boston—on her stern. Thereupon we ran up our flag; and, as it is as gross a breach of the code of maritime politeness for a ship to pass across the bows of another in the open ocean without saluting, as for a man on land to brush quickly across another's path without apologizing, a blank shot was fired at this unmannerly American. To this manifestation etiquette lays it down that, as the hoisting of her flag by a man-of-war is a direct challenge for any merchantman that may be in sight to hoist its flag, any neglect of these universally recognized rules must involuntarily give rise to suspicions. After we had fired the blank shot, the American, by a telegraph of flag-signals, enquired the latitude and longitude, which in merchant ships in the open sea is pretty frequently resorted to, in order to know where precisely they are, as they are not able to make such frequent observations as ships of war. Before anything else, however, it was necessary to settle the question of saluting; and this the obstinate Yankee, in spite of the warning signal, seemed resolved not to notice, although he well knew the seriousness of his position, as was abundantly evident in the celerity with which several ladies and gentlemen, whom we could discern on deck, flew to seek shelter below! A second report, accompanied by a ball over his stern, at last brought this pertinacious captain to his senses, and the whistling of the shot had the desired effect. The "Stars and Stripes" were run up, upon which we signalled the required latitude and longitude. Probably it was but a petulant explosion of a silly national vanity, as also the consciousness of commanding a handsome crack "clipper," that could speedily run out of gun-shot, which led to this premeditated and persistent violation of one of the most ordinary rules of politeness. Indeed, even the vessels of the North American navy itself are frequently compelled in the open sea to treat their fellow-countrymen in a similar manner; and the captain of the war-steamer Minnesota, looking after the North American interests in China, was obliged, as we learned afterwards at Shanghai, to enforce a compliance with established sea usages on one of his seafaring compatriots, by dint of cannon-shot, in accordance with the undoubted practice of all maritime nations.

The south-east Trade, which we had hoped would drive us on our destined course, was not so strong or so steady as we had expected, chiefly perhaps in consequence of the influence exercised by the Australian continent, the temperature of which during this, the summer season of the Southern Hemisphere, is raised to an extraordinary degree by its sandy surface, that when the air has become thus warmed, it ascends and becomes more rarefied in its lower strata, in consequence of which its elasticity becomes so great as to drive back the surrounding colder atmosphere, and only admit it to contact with the heated air at its most remote limits. This occurs the more readily, that the heated air, after it has risen to the more rarefied tracts, expands on all sides, and at a certain distance from the lower level, begins to add to the pressure of the atmosphere. In this self-acting zone of increased atmospheric pressure, the winds, however, are naturally more faint, and, to observers who happen to be on the exterior of this zone, always appear to take their rise from the further side. For this reason, probably, we fell in with easterly breezes, so long as we had the Northern portion of Australia to the eastward of us.

At any rate, the equilibrium of the air seemed to be disturbed, as we could plainly perceive from the weather and the confused sea. At last on 18th December, the heavens seemed somewhat more propitious, though the wind still continued easterly; indeed occasionally blew from the north, and frequent squalls of rain poured pitilessly down upon us. The more, however, we increased our distance from the Australian continent, that is, from all land to the eastward, the more steadily blew the south east Trade. And so we kept standing steadily forwards, till at last, on the 24th December, in 6° 4′ S. Lat., and 82° 34′ E. Long., we reached the eastern boundaries of the Trades and got into that of calms.

The heat, which thus far had spared us, began now to be most oppressive, and was felt all the more owing to the air being extraordinarily damp and dense. Frequently in the afternoon a passing shower of rain, which would sometimes completely flood the deck, would cool the air for a few fleeting moments. Occasionally indeed we had westerly and more rarely north-westerly breezes, but these were never of long duration, and were incessantly broken by rains and squalls.

And at this same season, at which in our distant Fatherland, palace and hut are decked out with unwonted attention, when golden fruits and elegant presents glitter from the green fir-branches of the Christmas Tree, all lit up with the neat little wax-tapers, when man's heart seems to overflow with cheerfulness and love of his fellow-creatures—at this season we were languishing far from our dear ones, tormented with the intense heat, scarcely able to realize to ourselves, that at home it must now be snow and frost, while keen Boreas is whirling the snowflakes aloft, and howling a grim accompaniment the while! However, we promised ourselves the satisfaction of enjoying these pleasures at our own firesides, whereupon our recollections of home and dear friends imparted to our minds a wholesome stimulus, arising from the soul-inspiring conviction, that we too were present in their minds and hearts at this hallowed season. Nay, several of the officers of the Novara Expedition were surprised when far at sea, in the very midst of the Indian Ocean, with Christmas gifts, which thoughtful friends had many months before entrusted to the care of discreet fellow-voyagers.

After constantly struggling against calms and contrary winds, exactly at the first stroke of the New Year, at midnight of 31st December-1st January, we reached the Equator, which we were now crossing for the second time, and began the year 1858 in the Northern Hemisphere.

On this New Year's Day we had nearly had a great disaster. A lad who was coming down the shrouds fell overboard. The sea was perfectly calm and smooth, but already on the morning of this very day we had seen many sharks, those dreaded foes of man in the domain of ocean, so that the life of the unfortunate youth seemed seriously imperilled. The same instant in which the youth fell, saw a life-buoy thrown over, a boat prepared for lowering, and all usual appliances for a rescue made available. But although an excellent swimmer, he seemed to lose all presence of mind, probably through fear, and must undoubtedly have been drowned, had not the boatswain's mate, and two other sailors, leaped into the water and made all haste to his assistance. Meanwhile the boat had been got into the water, by which rescued and rescuers were got safe on board again.

A few months later, the boatswain's mate, for his gallant conduct on this occasion, received, by the express orders of His Majesty, the silver cross of merit, while the sailors were advanced one grade.

The current, which runs northward along the coast of Australia, but turns off to the westward about the tenth degree of South latitude, so as to pass southward of Ceylon, directly along the Equator to the Coast of Africa, carried us far to the westward, in consequence of which we had overcast, uncertain weather, with, for the most part, calms or light breezes. As we found ourselves approaching the fourth degree of Northern latitude, a rather fresh N.E. wind sprung up, probably the trade wind of the Northern Hemisphere, which, however, as we neared Ceylon, again died away to a calm.

At the same time, in lat. 5° 32′ N., 79° 5′ E., we fell in with a current running more than two miles an hour. We had, as it turned out, got to the westward of the roadstead of Point de Galle, in Ceylon, and found some little difficulty in making headway against the current. On 7th January, toward 3.30 p. m., land was made to the eastward, and an hour later, a Cingalese canoe was perceived making for the frigate under sail. It was the pilot boat, whose crew, having been informed by a Hamburg brig that a large ship was in sight, had put to sea to meet us.

At the first sight of this little canoe, it was hardly possible to refrain from amazement at the courage and hardihood with which the half-naked Cingalese boatmen could put off some 30 or 40 miles to sea in such a tiny, narrow boat, that barely gives them room to sit lengthwise. Two cross-bars, or outriggers, projecting on one side, where they are fastened externally to a rather massive beam, which swims parallel with the boat, gave this canoe, apparently so fragile, such stability and seaworthiness, that it is at all times not less safe than a boat of European construction.76

The natives steer with short paddles, and continue an incredibly long time at this most exhausting work, as we must conceive it to be. And yet they are to appearance a feeble race, except that the muscular system of the upper part of the body is remarkably developed.

The dress of these people is remarkably simple, and usually consists only of a piece of coloured linen cloth or calico, which, worn short like a woman's petticoat, is thrown single-fold round the loins.

The pilot, though he could only make himself intelligible in broken English, speedily came to a good understanding, and offered to sell us bananas, pine-apples, and cocoa-nuts, as also Ceylon jewels, the latter of which he carried on his person, secured in a parti-coloured cotton belt. This reminded us that we were nearing the shores of the country in which costly stones are found, but precisely on that account, as was natural, our speculative pilot found but a poor market for his wares.

Off the coast we caught a shark 7 feet long, and 135 lbs. weight—a rather juvenile specimen—whose teeth, which we examined, were already strong and sharp enough to seize a man, and strip the flesh off him. Also a number of large dolphins and other fish, sported in the dead water under the frigate's stern, and provided plentiful employment for the harpoon and the rod. Presently we found ourselves within six miles of the land, when a large number of pirogues forthwith came swarming about us, all of a construction similar to the pilot boat, and each manned by four half-naked bronze natives. These offered fruits for sale, especially magnificent, gigantic clusters of banana. On one such cluster we counted, arranged in five rows, one over the other, not less than 175 bananas.

On the 8th January, we anchored in the unpicturesque haven of Point de Galle, surrounded by groves of cocoa-nut palms, directly opposite the lighthouse tower, and in a fine quartz sand bottom of 16½ fathoms (103 feet English). All large ships, that only intend remaining a short time, anchor in the open roadstead, the entrance into the inner harbour being rather difficult, owing to numerous coral reefs. In the roads also lay the English frigate Shannon, from which, in the absence of her captain, the first lieutenant immediately came on board the Novara, and in the handsomest manner put his services at our disposal.

As the only Austrian Consul on the island was resident in Colombo, M. Sonnenkalb, the Consul for Hamburg, had the courtesy to receive us with the most hospitable of welcomes, and proceeded to do us the honours of the place.

On the 10th we hauled the frigate into the small inner harbour, in order to facilitate the shipping of stores. The entrance is rather winding, owing to the numerous shoals, and it is with some little difficulty that one can find a comfortable, commodious berth among such a crowd of shipping. We only saluted the flag of the dominant nationality—a customary courtesy—and were replied to by the batteries on shore. An officer of the frigate was then dispatched to announce our arrival to the governor of the station—a major in the English army. This gentleman seemed not to think it incumbent on him to put himself in the least out of his way for us. Indeed, we even experienced some little difficulty in procuring a sufficient supply of drinking water for shipment as stores; but we must at the same time add, in justice to the representatives of England in distant countries, that during our entire voyage this was the one solitary instance in which English military official men did not display that universal readiness to oblige, which, to their credit, is so conspicuously and so kindly displayed by them in their intercourse with foreign nations.

CINGALESE CANOE.

56. Captain C. P. Blackwood, of H.M.S. Fly, 1842, and Captain Denham, C.B., of H.M. Surveying Ship Herald, 1853. M. Tinot "capitaine du long cours," who visited St. Paul in the summer of 1844, published likewise some interesting memoranda relating to that island, in the "Nouvelle Annales de la Marine et des Colonies," for November, 1853.

57. Previous to the resuscitation, after considerable difficulty, of this important, indeed decisive document, by Mons. L. C. D. Van Dyk, among the archives of the East and West India Company of Amsterdam, of which he was Librarian, the utmost uncertainty prevailed as to the discovery, name, and geographical position of the two islands. Now, William Van Flaming, a Dutch navigator, was supposed to be the discoverer—now, the hardy Van Diemen. Atlases, charts, and books of travels, spoke of the name St. Paul belonging, here to the northern island, there to the southern. This long-continued confusion of names had naturally left ample space for the most contradictory statements as to the position, conformation, and geological conditions of both islands. One traveller, for instance, describes Amsterdam as an island with good anchorage on the North side, and an extinct crater, into which ran a fissure, forming a natural link with the ocean; while, on the other hand, he described St. Paul as a desert island, with steeply sloping shores, which make it matter of difficulty, if not utterly impracticable, to effect a landing; while other voyagers, again, give directly contrary accounts of both islands. Compare the following:—"An authentic account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, together with a relation of the voyage undertaken on the occasion by H.M.S. Lion, and the ship Hindostan, E.I.C.N., to the Yellow Sea and Gulf of Pekin, as well as of their return to Europe, taken chiefly from the papers of H.E. the Earl of Macartney, &c., by Sir George Staunton, Bart. (London, 1797), vol. I., pp. 205–27."—"Rélation du Voyage à la recherche de La Pérous fait par l'ordre de l'Assemblée constituante pendant les années 1791–92, et pendant la 1^re et la 2^de année de la République Française. Par le citoyen La Billardière, Correspondent de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris. Au VIII. de le République Française. Tome I. pp. 120–123."—"Johnston, A.K., General Gazetteer of the World (London, 1855)."—"Hamburgh, James, India Directory; or, Directions for Sailing to or from the East Indies, China, Australia, and the adjacent parts of Africa and South America (London, 1855). 7th Edition, vol. I., p. 101."—"Voyage to the South Pole, and Round the World, by Captain Jas. Cook, R.N. (London, 1777)." An interesting and tolerably circumstantial treatise on these islands is also to be found among the transactions of the Imperial-Royal Geographical Society of Vienna for the year 1857, second division, pp. 145–56, by Mr. A. C. Zhishman, Professor of Geography and History, in the I. R. Nautical Academy at Trieste.

58. "It seems," says Lord Macartney, "that the Chinese possess remarkable skill in the dressing of seal-skins, by which they remove the long coarse hair, so as to leave merely the soft tender skin, and simultaneously manage to render the hide thin and pliant. Only the prospect of some such enormous profit could at any time induce human beings to pass fifteen months at a stretch on so ungenial a spot, which, moreover, their occupation must render yet more loathsome. They killed the seals as they basked in the sun on the rocks along the shore, and around the broad natural rock basins. As only the skins were of any value to them, they left the flayed carcases exposed to rot on the ground, and these lie heaped together here in such masses that it was difficult to avoid treading on them, when one reached the shore of the island. At every step some disgusting spectacle presented itself, while an unutterably nauseous smell of decaying matter poisoned the surrounding atmosphere. In the summer months the seals flock hither, all at the same period, in herds sometimes numbering 800 to 1000, of which usually only about one hundred are killed at a time. This is the utmost number that five men can skin in the course of a single day, it being necessary to peg them together on the spot, on account of the drying up of the skin. For want of the requisite vessels only an inconsiderable quantity of the train-oil, which these animals contain, is collected. A portion of the best of the blubber is melted, and serves these people in lieu of butter. The seal which frequents these islands is the Southern or Falkland seal (Arctocephalus Falclandicus of Gray—Phoca fusilla of Schreber). The female weighs ordinarily from seventy to one hundred and twenty pounds, and is from three to five feet long, the male usually considerably larger. In their natural state these animals are not particularly timid; sometimes, indeed, they plunge all together into the water when any one approaches them; but quite as often they remain sitting quietly on the rocks, or raise themselves erect with a menacing growl. A sharp blow on the snout with a stick seems sufficient to kill them. Most of those that approach the shore are females, the proportion they bear to the males being about thirty to one. This apparent disproportion between the sexes, according to observation hitherto, is explained as follows:—The Southern seal at certain periods often undertakes distant wanderings from one tract to another; and certain of these tracts, such as the Cape of Good Hope and the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, are only frequented by the females when about to bring forth, and by the younger males of the school. In winter the huge snouted seal, or Sea Elephant (Macrorhinus, "long snout," elephantinus of Gray—Phoca leonina of Schreber), which sometimes attains a length of twenty-five or even thirty feet, comes in great numbers to these islands, where they herd together like sheep in the natural coves which the coast is broken into, in which the males announce the presence of a herd by a vehement growling, deepening into a loud roar."

59. According to Captain Denham, who visited this island in 1853, the present proprietor called this fishing station, Marie Heurtevent, and said he had bought it about five years previously for 6000 dollars from a Polish merchant of St. Denis, where he himself also resided. (Nautical Magazine, pp. 68, 75).

60. All the Dutch Indiamen on the home voyage from Batavia, during the months of October till May, have been for many years in the habit of running south till they sighted St. Paul, so as to catch the S. E. Trades. But it has never been the policy of the Dutch to attract attention to the eastern seas, and accordingly no information found its way to Europe respecting these interesting islands, till the period mentioned in the text.

61. Called also the "Jumping Jack" by the English sailors, from its custom of jumping quite out of the water, like a porpoise, on its encountering the slightest obstacle.

62. Called by the English sailors "Port Egmont Hens" from their frequenting Port Egmont in the Falkland Isles. They seem to be identical in species with the "skua," or "bonxie" of the Shetlands.

63. A second breeding-place, somewhat larger, but much more inaccessible than that described, occurs on the north-west side of the island. There among rugged fantastically broken masses of rock, these extraordinary creatures can sun themselves undisturbed, and have hardly anything to dread from the destroying hand of man, who could only get thither with much difficulty, and not without peril to life, by clambering along the face of a precipitous wall of rock.

64. The vegetables planted were as follows:—Brassica rapa (rape); Brassica oleracea capitata (sea kail); Brassica rapa alba (white turnip); Brassica rapa flava (yellow turnip); Raphanus sativus (radish); Lepidium sativum (dittandu); Cochleæia officinalis (scurvy grass).

65. According to Lord Macartney, the tide rises at full and new moon, between 8 and 9 feet perpendicular. A northerly wind always causes the highest tide, the current of which is from S.E. by S. to N.W. by N., and has a velocity of about 3 miles an hour.

66. Among these were the works on Natural History, by Charles Bonnel (Neufchâtel, 1783); J. S. Laharpe's "Abrégé de l'Histoire Générale des Voyages, Paris, 1816;" Dacier's "Translation of Horace into French, with Notes and Critical Remarks. Paris, 1816;" "De la Félicité Publique; ou, Considérations sur le sort des Hommes dans les Différentes époques de l'Histoire: A. Bouillon: from the Printing Establishment of the Typographical Society, Paris, 1776;" "Essay on the Life of the Great Condé, by Louis Joseph, Prince de Condé, at present in England, London, 1st May, 1807;" "Précis des Journées 15, 16, 17, and 18 Juin, 1815, ou Fin de la Vie Politique de Napoleon Buonaparte, par M. Giraud, auteur de la "Campagne de Paris en 1814;" Paris, 1815, 1st vol. 8; "Histoire des Guerres des Gaulois et des Français en Italie, avec le tableau des évènemens civils et mílitaires qui les accompagnèrent et leur influence sur la civilisation et les progrès de l'esprit humain." "Depuis Bellevise jusqu'à la mort de Louis XII., par lex Adjutant-Général Auguste Jubé, tribun." "Depuis Louis XII., jusqu'àu Traité d'Amiens, par Joseph Servan, Général de Division. Dediées à S. M. l'Empereur. Paris, an. XIII. (1805)." "Manuel des habitans de St. Dominique, contenant un précis de l'histoire de cette isle depuis sa découverte, etc., par S. J. Ducœurjoly, ancien habitant de St. Dominique; Paris, 1800, an. X, 2 vols.

67. The time, which we took from the Cape Observatory by four excellent chronometers, gave, on our voyage between the Cape and St. Paul, a period of forty-six days, a difference of 3 h. 56 min. 11 sec., which the island was E. of the Cape, so that adding the Longitude of the latter East of Greenwich (by nautical almanack), 1 h. 13 min. 55 s., we have the Longitude of St. Paul 5 h. 10 min. 6 s. East of Greenwich (77° 31′ 30″ E.) Between Madras and St. Paul, during a long passage of sixty-seven days, and with six chronometers somewhat less accurately set than the preceding, St. Paul was found by observation to be 0 h. 10 min. 51.8 sec. West of Madras (2° 42′ 55″ W.) By the longitude of the Observatory of Madras, 5 h. 20 min. 57 sec. East of Greenwich (80° 14′ 15″ E.), as furnished by the Director of the Observatory, Major Jacobs (whereas the nautical almanack gave 5 h. 21 m. 3.77 sec. = 80° 16′ 0½″). The longitude of St. Paul would be 5 h. 10 m. 5.2 s. East of Greenwich (77° 31′ 23″ E.) The average of the two measurements gives as the average 5 h. 10 m. 5.6 sec., or 77° 31′ 26″ E. to be assumed as the final longitude of St. Paul, while the latitude was taken from the various means of the height of the sun at the meridian on an average of days. An additional computation in which allowances were made for the various corrections, gave, as the latitude, 38° 42′ 47″ S.

68. Remembering how many bottles and glass tubes were shattered, we have not thought it beyond our province to recommend future scientific travellers to bring with them a good supply of duplicates of all instruments liable to breakage, as it is very difficult to get such insignificant articles replaced out of Europe, and we frequently found on this occasion the want of some such little instrument interposed an obstacle to the further usefulness of the instruments.

69. Such as Rumex acetosella, Cynara Scolcymus (artichoke); Solanum tuberosum (species of nightshade); Daucus carotta (carrot); Petroselinum sativum (parsley); Brassica oleracea (sea-kail); Raphanus sativus (horse-radish).

70. These loathsome animals cover the island in such quantities that one of the naturalists reckoned them at 6,000,000,000, counting 100 as the minimum to each square foot of the island.

71. One of the zoologists, Mr. Zelebor, endeavoured to kill two penguins that had been caught alive in the island, the one with arsenic, the other with chloroform. Of the latter, a quantity was administered enough to have killed a man, but which scarcely affected the penguin, who, in a quarter of an hour after, seemed quite restored to himself. The second, which had swallowed two tea-spoonsful of arsenic, died eight hours later.

72. La Billardière, Rélation du voyage à la recherche de la Peyrouse, fait par ordre de l'Assemblée Constituante pendant les années 1791–94, Paris, 1800. (Vol. I., pp. 112, 113.)

73. Vide Alexander v. Humboldt's "Kosmos," Vol. IV., pp. 412 and 585; also Physical and Geognostic Remarks, by the same author, prefixed to this volume.

74. Some very valuable and detailed particulars of the Whale fishery are to be found in Maury's incomparable work, "The Physical Geography of the Ocean," and in Dr. Hartwigs' "Popular Treatise on Animated Nature in the Ocean. (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1855.)"

75. One of the shipwrecked crew of the Meridian, in an article in the Nautical Magazine, for 1854, p. 75, describes at some length the difficulties of access to this island. We quote it here as a supplement to our own experiences:—"After we had clambered up to the top by means of ropes, and after much exertion and considerable danger, we found the island for a space of two or three miles thickly covered with reeds, from 5 to 8 feet high; behind rose a lofty hill, also clothed with reeds. Fortunately, during our stay on the island, there was a sufficiency of fresh water, although in summer, in all probability, there is a great scarcity. So long as we remained, constant rain fell upon the summit of the mountain, and kept the numerous little brooks full of water. In order to signal our situation to any ship that might be passing, we set the reeds on fire; but the flames spread more furiously than we had anticipated, so that our lives were endangered. A considerable quantity of young birds were picked up, which had fallen victims to the flames. On the 29th August, to our great joy, a ship, the Monmouth, hove in sight, and observed our signal; but the surf was at this time so violent that no boat could reach us. At last, on 31st August, a boat came near enough to the shore to make us a signal to proceed eastward over the rocks. We set off at once, but found the path very rugged, and owing to the immense masses of rock lying around, excessively difficult. Besides reeds and brushwood, there were no other plants but parsley and endive (cichorium intybus). During the first half of the following day we found no water, but we found the hail very grateful, which day and night fell incessantly, alternating with rain. At the first watering-place we came upon an English sailor, whom the captain of the Monmouth had despatched to assist us. He informed us we must make for the north side of the island, as no boat could reach the shore at the spot where we had gone ashore. The south-coast is the worst part of the island; there the surf breaks continually against the iron-bound coast; there is nothing resembling a beach—only here and there enormous blocks of a hard species of stone, that have fallen from time to time from the cliffs above. On 2nd September, we had neither provisions nor water. The following day, however, we found water, and a few cabbage-stalks, which several years before had been sown by some whalers, and fortunately had thrived. On 5th September, we reached what is called the Cabbage Garden, and the same evening arrived at the place where the boat was awaiting us."

76. These canoes resemble very closely the "proas," of the Polynesian Islands, carrying a beam on one side, which is quite straight, and always kept on the lee of the wind and sea, the change of course being effected by simply shifting the sail, and steering with the paddle from the opposite end.