CHAP. II.] MADEIRA TO THE COAST OF BRAZIL. 93 



About two o'clock in tlie afternoon the lookout reported St. 

 Paul's Rocks visible from tlie mast-head, and shortly afterward 

 they were seen from the bridge, a delicate serrated outline on 

 the western horizon. 



These solitary rocks are nearly under the equator, and mid- 

 way between the coasts of Africa and of South America. 

 They were visited by Cajitain Fitzroy, accompanied by Mr. 

 Darwin, in the Beagle, in 1832, and a good account of their nat- 

 ural history is given by Mr, Darwin in his " Voyage of a Natu- 

 ralist." They were again touched at by Sir James Ross in the 

 Erehus, in 1839. Merchant vessels usually give them a wide 

 berth ; but our party found a bottle with a paper stating that on 

 the 19th of July, 1872, Captain Pack had landed from the ship 

 Ann MilUcent, of Liverpool, bound from London to Colombo. 

 "We were greatly struck with their small size, for although we 

 knew their dimensions perfectly well — rather under a quarter 

 of a mile from end to end of the group — we had scarcely real- 

 ized so mere a speck out in mid-ocean, so far from all other 

 land. We came in to the west of the rocks under their lee. 

 To our right there were three small detached rocks, dark and 

 low; then a rock about sixty feet high, almost pure white, 

 from being covered with a varnish of a mixture of phosphatic 

 matter produced by the sea-birds and sea-salt ; next a bay or 

 cove with a background of lower rock. To the left some peaks 

 fifty to sixty feet high, white and variously mottled, and to the 

 extreme left detached rocks; the whole ridge excessively rug- 

 ged, with channels and clefts here and there through which the 

 surf dashes from the weather side. 



A boat was sent off under the charge of Lieutenant Bethell, 

 with a quantity of whale-line ; and a loop of eight or ten ply 

 was passed round one of the rocks. To this a hawser was run 

 from the ship, lying about seventy yards out with her bows in 

 104 fathoms water. The hawser was made fast to the whale- 

 line, and the ship thus moored to the rock. There was a strong 



