IN THE PACIFIC. 263 



places of interest in the Gulf of California, 

 including Guaymas, and La Paz, where we had 

 orders to call. We accordingly sailed for La 

 Paz on 3rd of June, and two days afterwards 

 sighted the lofty and barren island of Ceralbo, 

 on the western side of the gulf. Off the 

 north end of this island there is, according to 

 the admiralty chart, a group of rocks, marked 

 " dangerous, " but which in reality do not 

 exist in the spot mentioned. We kept a 

 particularly good look-out for them from the 

 deck and the mast-head, but no signs of 

 rocks, shoals, or even discoloured water were 

 to be seen. The navigator is cautioned not to 

 place too much reliance on the charts of this 

 part of the coast, as the survey was a " run- 

 ning " one, it might rather be called an 

 imaginary one, for points, bays, and shoals are 

 marked which do not exist, save in the imagi- 

 nation of the surveyors. The coast-line on 

 the eastern shore of the gulf is also notoriously 

 inaccurate. At one place we were several 

 miles inland by cross bearings ; the recent 



