Jan. 

 1826. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 213 



discovery in these seas, joined the party in spite of a chap. 

 sound ducking, which was the smallest penalty at- 

 tached to the undertaking. In one of these attempts 

 the Naturalist was unfortunately drawn into a deep 

 hole in the coral by the recoil of the sea, and, but 

 for prompt assistance, would in all probability have 

 lost his life. 



The island proved to be only a mile and three- 

 quarters in length, from north to south, and a mile 

 and three-tenths in width. It consisted of a narrow 

 strip of land of an oval form, not more than two 

 hundred yards wide in any part, with a lagoon in 

 its centre, which the colour of the water indicated 

 to be of no great depth. In places this lake washed 

 the trunks of the trees ; in others it was separated 

 from them by a whitish beach, formed principally 

 of cardium and venus-shells. Shoals of small fish 

 of the chsetodon genus, highly curious and beautiful 

 in colour, sported along the clear margin of the lake, 

 and with them two or three species of fistularia; 

 several moluscous animals and shell-fish occupied 

 the hollows of the coral (principally madrepora cer- 

 vi-cornis) ; and the chama giganteus was found so 

 completely overgrown by the coral that just suffi- 

 cient space was left for it to open its shell ; a fact 

 which tends to show the rapidity with which coral 

 increases. 



Upon the shores of the lagoon, the pandanus, 

 cocoa-nut, toufano, sccevola kcenigii, the suriana 

 (whose aroma may be perceived at the distance of 

 several miles,) the large clump-tree, pemphis acidula, 

 tournefortia sericea, and other evergreens common 

 to these formations, constituted a thick wood, and 

 afforded a cool retreat from the scorching rays of a 



