28o Voyage of the Novara. 



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 

 Alliarice 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 



