236 Cruise of the "Alert." 



see on it two large huts and several clumps of bushes, but nothing 

 in the shape of a human being. (One of our boats visited this islet 

 on the following day and reported that the huts were uninhabited, 

 although showing signs of having recently been in use.) There were 

 three plants ; viz., the Veloutier Tabac {Tournefortia argented) y the 

 Bois D'aimanthe (Suriana maritima), a bush with lanceolate woody 

 leaves, and a small herbaceous plant. After a good deal of groping 

 and wading about the shores of the islet, we returned at about 5 p.m. 

 to the place where we had left our boat, but found, to our dismay, 

 that the tide had fallen so low since we had landed, that the boat 

 was now hard and fast on the bare reef, and after repeated efforts 

 to drag it over to the reef-edge, a distance of nearly half a mile, 

 we were obliged to make up our minds to wait for the rising tide. 

 As we were unfortunately without any provisions, our position was 

 not the most agreeable, especially as the boat was not floated off 

 till near midnight. 



On the morning of the 1st of May we weighed anchor and 

 steamed over to the island of St. Pierre, which lies about ten 

 miles to the south-west of our last position. We spent some 

 hours sounding off the island in deep water, and as it was 

 reported that there was no safe anchorage, the captain did not 

 attempt to land. Seen from a distance of about half a mile — the 

 nearest we approached to it — St. Pierre appeared to be of a very 

 different character from the islands recently visited. It was some- 

 what circular in outline, and was covered by a dense growth of 

 scrubby bushes, above which appeared the crowns of three or four 

 isolated palm trees. The mean level of its surface was about 

 thirty feet above the water, so that it was three or four times as 

 high as Providence, or the Amirante Islands. It presented all 

 round a precipitous rock-bound coast worn into jagged pinnacles 

 above, and undermined below by the wear and tear of the heavy 

 ocean swell, which thundered against it and testified to its eroding 

 power by the jets of spray which we saw shot upwards from blow- 

 holes through the upper surface of the rock, 



