Stniciure of the Amirajites : A Resume. 225 



gun at a distance of sixty yards or more was enough to scare 

 away any of tliem. 



The partridge was identical with that already seen at Eagle 

 and Darros Islands. The pigeon, which I have included among 

 the list of the birds, I saw only once. But one of the Creoles 

 living on the island told me that it was an indigenous species,, 

 and was quite distinct from the domestic pigeons which roost 

 about and restrict their range to the houses and trees about the 

 settlement. 



Although this island has been classed as one of the Amirante • 

 Group, it would be more correct to look upon it as distinct and 

 apart from the main group, inasmuch as the bank on which it 

 rests is separated from the Amirante bank by a deep water 

 channel eleven miles wide. We sounded across this channel, and 

 obtained no bottom with one hundred fathoms of line. Isle des 

 Roches is, moreover, peculiar in forming part of an atoll, most of 

 which is submerged, and is covered with from two to five fathoms 

 of water. The circumscribed patch of deep water in the interior 

 has a depth of about fifteen fathoms. 



During the week subsequent to our departure from Isle des 

 Roches, we anchored successively off the four remaining islets of 

 the group ; viz., Etoile, Marie-Louise, Des Neufs, and Boudeuse. 

 They are mere cays, formed of coral and drift sand, and are 

 uninhabited. Owing to the heavy surf which broke all round their 

 shores, we found it unsafe to land. 



With our brief visit to the islets just mentioned our survey of 

 the Amirante Group came to an end. I will, therefore, before 

 quitting the subject, make a few general remarks on the group as 

 a whole. The Amirante Group consists altogether of twenty-one 

 low coral islets, resting (with the exception of Isle des Roches, 

 which is on a separate bank) on an extensive coral bank, whose 

 long axis lies in a north-north-east and south-south-west direction, 

 and is eighty-nine miles in length, with an average breadth of 

 nineteen miles. It is included between the limits of 4° 5 oi' and 



15 



