70 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept. 



proved rather a disadvantage than otherwise, as it made it most 

 difficult to localise the spot at which the water was entering, 

 and there was every chance that it passed through the inner 

 skin at quite a different place from that at which it had pene- 

 trated the outer. As soon as we were assured of calm seas 

 the holds were unstowed and a flooring built, but this was not 

 effected before we had suffered considerable damage to our 

 provisions, which we were afterwards put to some expense in 

 replacing. 



Later on we had the annoyance of seeing the report of our 

 leak exaggerated and represented as a danger to the ship. 

 This it never was, but of course the water that entered had to 

 be pumped out ; and if the whole voyage is considered, the 

 sum total of hours spent in pumping out the ' Discovery ' is a 

 large one. 



The island of South Trinidad is an isolated mass of 

 volcanic rock lying some 500 miles to the east of the continent 

 of South America. It has been frequently visited, though not 

 regularly, and a fascinating description is given of it in ' The 

 Cruise of the " Falcon " ' (E. F. Knight). Few naturalists 

 have landed on it, and as it lay on our route I thought our 

 time would not be wasted in giving our officers an opportunity 

 of a run ashore. We sighted it on the morning of the 13th, 

 and, approaching the western side, manned our boats and 

 pulled for the shore. The ocean swell was breaking heavily 

 along the whole coast, and the prospect of landing looked 

 doubtful, but at length we found a small natural pier which 

 seemed to afford some shelter from the heavy rollers ; even 

 here, however, our small boats were at one moment lifted high 

 above the rocks, and at the next had dropped many feet below 

 them. The attempt to land seemed hazardous, and on inquir- 

 ing if all on board could swim, I found that one at least could 

 not ; but the shore looked too enticing to our sea-accustomed 

 eyes to be abandoned without an effort, and, handling the boats 

 with care, we eventually succeeded in taking advantage of the 

 lift of each wave to leap one by one on to the rocks, and at 

 length all except the boat-keepers were safely landed. 



