SEARCH FOR WATER. 1G7 



east breeze during the forenoons, which we found to 

 prevail during our stay, being stronger at the full 

 and chan(je of the moon. Althouoh coming' directlv 

 from the land they quite made us shiver, reducing 

 the temperature on one occasion to 59". These winds 

 began about daylight at south, gradually veering and 

 drawing round to the eastward as the day advanced, 

 and subsiding again as rapidly after noon, leaving 

 the evening and night generally calm. 



A search was immediately made for the stream of 

 fresh water reported to have been found by the 

 French, in Freycinet's voyage, on Depuch Island. 

 As our stock was now very much reduced, and as 

 our stay on the coast depended on the supply we 

 could procure here, we were greatly concerned to 

 find that our examination was in vain. Everything 

 appeared parched up ; wells were forthwith com- 

 menced, and we dug as many as eight, but at the 

 depth of twenty-one feet the water that poured into 

 them was salt. Fortunately Mr. Bynoe found a reser- 

 voir of water in the main valley leading up from the 

 north end of the sandy beach, and about a mile 

 from the sea. From this we got about six tons of 

 tolerable water, although the labour of carrying 

 it on the men's shoulders in seven-gallon barecas 

 was very great, the only road lying through the 

 valley, which, as may be inferred from the rounded 

 stones it is strewed with, sometimes conveys a torrent 

 to the sea. Large columnar blocks of the green- 

 stone of which the island is composed, present, as 



