'fl.'. 



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DE. nOOKEE OK THE BOTAKT Or BAOFL ISLAND. 



125 



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Raoul Island, one of the Kerm; 



the South Pacific Ocean. 



F.E.S., E.L.S. &c. 



M 



[Bead April 1st, 1856.] 



The materials from which the following sketch is drawn up con- ' 

 sist of a small collection of plants made upon Eaoul Island, by 

 ^Ir. M'GiUiYray, late Naturalist to H.M.S. Herald, under the 

 command of Captain Denham, E.N., who forwarded the collection 

 m question to Sir "W. Hooker j and whose zealous exertions in 

 turthering the scientific objects of the expedition under his com- 

 mand demand the grateful acknowledgement of all classes of 

 naturalists. 



V ery little being known of the Kermadec group, I applied to 

 Captain "Washington, E.N"., the present able and assiduous Hydro- 

 grapher to the Admiralty, who promptly forwarded me the follow- 

 ing information. 



The name of Kermadec Islands was first given, in the chart 

 accompanying Admiral Eossel's account of D'Entrecastcaux's 

 voyage in search of La Peyrouse, to a group situated about 450 

 mUes N.E. of New Zealand, between that group and the Fijis. 

 They consist of four principal islands, Macauley and Curtis 

 Islands, discovered before D'Entrecasteaux's visit, by Lieutenant 

 Watts in the Penrhyn in 1788, and Eaoul and Esperance Islands, 

 % D'Entrecasteaux on March 15th, 1793. 



Eaoul, or Sunday Island, is described both by D'Entrecasteaux 

 (vol. i. 295) and D'Urville (Voy. de 1' Astrolabe, iii, 7) as trian- 

 gular, and not more than four leagues in circumference, forming 

 alngh, rugged, steep mountain covered with wood. Commodore 

 Wilkes, who afterwards visited it, adds that it appears to be vol- 

 canic, and that its rocks rise like basaltic columns. 



Captain Benham in H.M.S. HeraM finished the survey ,of this 

 island on July 24th, 1854, and reports that "it is in lat. 29° 15 30" S., 

 long. 177° 54' 52" W., and that its maximum altitude is 1627 feet." 

 Its only inhabitants consist of a family from New York, to whose 

 humane disposition he is indebted, under the trying circumstances 

 of having to inter his son close to their settlement. Poultry, 

 vegetables and water can be procured there during the summer. 



Some further information regarding Eaoul Island is given by 



Mr. Milne (Botanical Collector to the Expedition) in Hooker's 



Journal of Botany' (vii. 151), where the luxuriance of the 



Ciyptogamic vegetation is particularly alluded to, and the pre- 



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