24 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 239 



harbor is called Port Lloyd. They lie in about 27° N. Lat. and 

 143%° E. Long. They were visited twenty years ago by Beechey 

 and Lutke and last year by Commodore Perry, who went through 

 some form of taking possession and appointing a governor, whose 

 name is Savery. The inhabitants are about thirty in number, 

 mostly runaway whalemen with wives brought from the Sand- 

 wich [Hawaiian] Islands. They live by cultivating small patches 

 of sweet potatoes, lemon trees, etc., and furnishing fresh provisions 

 to the whalers which frequently stop here for water and refresh- 

 ments. They appear, however, to be very idle, and intoxicated 

 most of the time. 



November 6. Passed out of Port Lloyd, narrowly escaping being 

 jammed against the South Head. 



November 17. Anchored near some sandy coral islands near Napa 

 Harbor. Great Loo Choo [Okinawa] is the largest and most 

 southerly of the chain of islands which extend southward from 

 Japan. It is about sixty miles in length and rather less than 

 twenty in average breadth. The land is moderately elevated. 

 In the southern part is the capital town Shui, a distance of about 

 three miles from Napa, the chief port. Half a mile north of Napa 

 is Tusui. At this place our boats usually landed, and for its 

 convenience a spot was selected here for our shore establishment. 

 [Dredging was not too successful.] As is usual in tropical and 

 subtropical countries the sandy and muddy bottoms in depths 

 exceeding two fathoms are almost barren of marine animals. 

 Wherever there is coral, the marine fauna seems always to be 

 almost entirely concentrated upon it, and while its groves afford 

 a rich field, but little can be found on the other stations of the 

 locality. In zoology, Loo Choo may be said to be chiefly dis- 

 tinguished for the number and variety of its shells. We obtained 

 nearly four hundred species during the time of our stay. It 

 should be mentioned however, that but few of these were obtained 

 alive, as our chief collecting ground was the beach northward 

 from Tusui. 



Here one might have spent many days in active search without 

 exhausting its riches, for after the larger and more beautiful 

 species were collected, there remained a host of minute shells, 

 mostly valuable only to the systematic conchologist, which really 

 seemed interminable in number, for each handful of coral sand 

 would afford a new form. The search of this beach offered an 

 unfailing resource, whenever the other objects of our collecting 

 excursions proved unattainable. The living shells, with a consid- 

 erable variety of other marine animals were obtained chiefly on 



