288 Voyage of the Novara. 



side of the bar, — to assist him in the execution of which Cadet 

 Count Borelli and Head Quartermaster Cian were detached. 

 We quartered ourselves as well as we could in the wretched 

 filthy huts which, in summer, serve the fishermen from St. 

 Denis as a shelter. In one of these hung several pictures — one 

 representing Napoleon I. riding the inevitable white horse, the 

 majority consisting of female portraits and scenes of Parisian 

 life, so that the whole place had quite a Frenchified appear- 

 ance. 



Hardly had the instruments, apparatus, men, and baggage 

 been placed under shelter, when once more a strong north wind 

 came on, which, during the night between the ^Oth and 21st, 

 increased to such a height, that it blew down the two huts 

 intended for the observations, which had not been quite finished, 

 and in which, fortunately, the instruments had not yet been 

 placed — exposing the work already begun to very considerable 

 interruption. ; 



Early in the morning, a whaler approached the island, and 

 sent one of her boats ofi" for fresh provisions. She proved to 

 be the Herald, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S., out 

 27 months, and expecting to require to remain out 1 1 months 

 longer, in order to complete her lading of oil and whalebone. 

 She was last from St. Augustin's Bay (Madagascar), which 

 place she had left two months previously. When the captain, 

 who chanced to be in the boat, saw the activity of the scientific 

 corps, the results of which were already beginning to be visible 

 in the hitherto deserted island, he said that one of his crew 



