1 6 3 Cruise of the ' 'Alert. ' ' 



searching on the way for certain reefs and banks of doubtful 

 existence, which it was desirable on proper evidence to expunge 

 from the charts. 



During the traverses which we made in sounding for these, I 

 had a good opportunity of plying the tow-net. Among the forms 

 thus obtained were a minute conferva, a brilHantly phosphorescent 

 pyrosoma, measuring three inches in length, and a small shell-less 

 pteropod, the Eurybia gaudicJiaiidi. A specimen of the latter, 

 vi'hich I examined in a glass trough, measured one-twelfth of an 

 inch across the body. After giving it about half-an-hour's rest, 

 it protruded its epipodia and tentacles, and commenced to swim 

 about vigorously. The caudal portion of the body was furnished 

 with cilia, and the digestive organs presented the appearance ol 

 a dark-red opaque mass, surrounded by a transparent envelope 

 of a gelatinous consistency, whose surface exhibited a reticulated 

 structure. 



Tongatabiiy Fi'iendly Islands, '^th to id>th of Novetnber. — The 

 credit of discovering the Tonga Islands rests with Tasman, who 

 saw them on the 20th of January, 1643, and subsequently 

 anchored his ship on the north-west side of the large island, 

 Tongatabu. Cook saw the islands during his second voyage in 

 October 1773, and on his third voyage in 1777 he made a stay 

 of three months at the group, for more than a month of which 

 time he was anchored at Tongatabu, the principal and most 

 southward island of the group. The islands were subsequently 

 visited by D'Entrecasteau, Maurelle (1781), Lieutenant Bligh 

 of the Bojinty, Captain Edwards of the Pandora (i 791), and other 

 explorers of the eighteenth century. 



In the month of November 1806, an English privateer, the 

 Port-au-Prince, arrived at Lifonga, one of the Hapai Islands, 

 where the ship was seized by the natives, and most of the crew 

 massacred. Among the few whose lives were spared was a young 

 man named Mariner, who acquired the friendship of the chief, 

 Finow, and lived peacefully with the natives for the space of 



