322 Voyage of tJie Novara. 



fish of all descriptions as at the Southernmost point of this 

 little-known island. Consequently most whalers, on their course 

 Southwards, approacli this island, and send out hoats to hring 

 in supplies of fish suitable for the table. Usually the boat is 

 filled in a few hours with delicious food caught with the rod 

 and line, when the fish are forthwith salted, in sufficient 

 quantities to supply the crew for several weeks. 



Is Amsterdam really a sister-island of St. Paul ? Is it, too, 

 of volcanic origin, upheaved by the same subterranean energy, 

 and does it still show similar traces of long-continued activity ? 

 These questions pressed on us for solution all the more vividly 

 as we neared this inaccessible island, when we recalled to 

 mind the mysterious phenomena which D'Entrecasteaux had 

 observed here in March, 179*2, and which have remained un- 

 explained to this day.* The French Expedition saw, it is 

 true, clouds of smoke emerging alternately from a subterranean 

 opening close to the shore, but without being able to satisfy 

 themselves whether the vegetation had been set on fire by the 

 hand of man or by volcanic action, the wind which blew 

 direct from the island making it impossible to land, unless one 

 was prepared to run the risk of being suffocated by the rolling 

 masses of smoke. There was, therefore, to be solved, at Am- 

 sterdam, the mystery as to whether the pillars of smoke, which 

 were observed by the naturalists of the French Expedition of 



* La Billardiere, Relation clu voyage a la recherche tie la Peyrouse, fait par ordre 

 de I'Assemblee Constituante pendant les annes 1791-94, Paiis, 1800. (Vol. I., pp. 

 112, 113.) 



