EASTERN PACIFIC EXPEDITION 431 



had reached from Callao six days previously. It was the 

 height of the dry season, and the great gray slopes of 

 the island, covered with dry bushes and shrubs, were 

 quite as uninviting in appearance as Darwin described 

 them. When the Albatross visited the island in 1891, 

 during the wet season, everything was green, and Agas- 

 siz, as previously noted, was much struck with its luxuri- 

 ant appearance as contrasted with Darwin's impression 

 of its general desolation. 



On shore the party found the convict settlement tem- 

 porarily abandoned, and the island held by a small 

 Ecuadorian garrison. For Mr. Cobos, the former lessee 

 of the island, who in 1891 was farming his plantation, 

 had been killed some years previously in an insurrection 

 of the convicts hired from the Government. 



On leaving Chatham Island for Manga Reva, the ship 

 again ran into the desert region at about 15° S., and 

 remained in it until a short distance from Manga Reva. 

 On reaching the port of Rikitea it became evident that 

 if the ship were ever to reach Acapulco with the coal she 

 could carry from Manga Reva, something must be done 

 to clean her bottom, which had become excessively dirty 

 from long exposure to tropical seas. Agassiz, remem- 

 bering that pearl-divers were half-amphibians, solved 

 the problem by distributing wire brushes to a number 

 of natives, who succeeded in diving under the ship and 

 scrubbing her clean from stem to stern. 



While this process was going on and the ship was 

 coaling, Agassiz spent his time exploring the Gambier 

 Islands, of which Manga Reva is the largest. Darwin, 

 from an examination of the charts, had called attention 

 to the similarity of this archipelago to Truk in the Caro- 

 lines. Agassiz, after having examined them both, was 



