CURRENT-RIPPLES. 69 



Upon entering the Gilolo passage,* the view 

 commanded from the deck of the ship included, 

 in addition to some of those we had passed, the 

 islands Een, Rab, Wihang, Sihang, Hi, and 

 Gaby. Indeed, the sea we were now sailing 

 upon presented a perfect garden of islands; 

 some of them lofty and mountainous ; others, 

 as Sihang, low, and resembling the coral for- 

 mations of the Pacific ; whilst all were clothed 

 with a dense and brilliant verdure, and afforded 

 a picturesque scene, heightened in beauty by 

 the serenity of the sky, and by the wide ex- 

 panse of blue ocean that surrounds their shores, 

 and bathes the feet of their wooded amphi- 

 theatres. 



An anchor was now got over the bows, as 

 a precaution against the calms and currents, 

 so much to be dreaded amongst these islands, 

 and which here began to beset us with greater 

 frequency the currents often approaching as 

 a long line of rolling surf, breaking against 

 the ship with a loud, confused, rippling sound, 

 and bearing large quantities of vegetable refuse 

 of the land, shoals of fish, marine mollusks, 

 and a great number of the elegant shells (for- 

 merly named CrozlersJ contained in the body 



* A strait, between the islands of Gilolo and Wageeoo. 



