474 VOLCANIC ARCHIPELAGO. 



Venus, Pullastra, Tettina, Pecten, Ostrcea, Modiolm, and 

 Lima, in a dead state. Among the univalves which were 

 obtained in a living condition, were Pleurotoma, Clava- 

 tula, Cancellaria, Terebra, Murex, and Nassa ; and dead 

 species of Cylichna, Natica, Miira, Dolium, BuH&a, Te- 

 rebellum, Turritella, and Dentalium. Altogether the 

 dredge furnished us with thirty-two genera, and numer- 

 ous species of Mollusks, besides Spatangus, Asterias, 

 Leucosia, Matuta, Echinus, and Sipunculm. 



On our passage from Nangasaki to Loo-Choo, we sailed 

 through a small archipelago comparatively unknown, and 

 consisting of from fifteen to twenty conical islands, all of 

 them evidently being the tops of a sunken chain of vol- 

 canic mountains, some of them still in an active state of 

 eruption, vomiting forth smoke in large volumes, from 

 terminal craters or fissures in the sides. These sub- 

 marine mountains must be very steep and lofty, for quite 

 close to the shore no bottom was found with two hun- 

 dred fathoms of line. On one islet, named " Disaster," 

 on account of the upsetting of the Captain's gig and loss 

 of numerous valuable instruments, hundreds of the 

 amphibious Sulla viridis of Rang, or B. calyculata of 

 Sowerby, were discovered crawling on the surface of the 

 rock, a little way removed from the dashing of the 

 waves. On some few of these sterile meteoric islands 

 goats were seen hanging from the flanks and browsing 

 on the scanty herbage; and these, mixed with a few Sweet- 

 potatoes, would seem to constitute the food of a few poor 

 miserable wretches of the human species, who have most 

 probably been banished to these inhospitable shores from 

 Japan or Loo-Choo, and who here contrive to maintain 



