Particulars of Frascr Islands Group. 589 



"Next the Ant Island is Pakeen, the sole adjoining is- 

 land. It lies about 22 miles W. of Tschokoits, its central 

 point lying in 7° 10' N. and 157'' 43' E. It consists of five 

 small coral islets, completely inclosed in a reef, which forms 

 an inaccessible lagoon in the interior. 



" Tlie entire group is about five miles in length from 

 west to east, and from north to south three miles in width. 

 The islands are very low, but produce an enormous quantity 

 of cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit, while the lagoon abounds with 

 excellent fish. The westernmost island is inhabited by 

 about thirty persons in all, mainly of the family and attend- 

 ants of the Chief of Puynipet, who claims proprietorship of 

 the whole group. This scanty population is chiefly engaged 

 in the construction of mats and canoe-sails made of the leaves 

 of the pandanus. In fine weather the denizens of Pakeen are 

 fond of running over to Puynipet to exchange their own 

 products for tobacco and other foreign articles. 



" What are marked on the charts as Bottomless Group and 

 St. Augustine's Islands have no existence. Pakeen and 

 Ant's Islands are the same groups adjoining each other to 

 the westward of Puynipet." 



Our progress now began to be very slow, and the equatorial 

 zones with their vexatious calms, and variable light breezes 

 alternating with violent squalls, became a sore trial for our 

 patience. An unusual and most oppressive heat, from which 

 we vainl}'- sought shelter ; tropical rains, which often fell in 

 unbroken torrents for hours at a time, and obscured the day- 



