12 ANXIOUS NAVIGATION. 



sliot in anoer, and in our turn we never Avitnessed a spear hurled 

 or an arrow discharged except in sport. 



The' navigation of a sailing ship, such as H.M.S. " Lark, ' 

 whilst engaged in the survey of a passage dotted with unknown, 

 sunken coral-reefs, and skirted by islands inhabited by a race of 

 savages who have obtained a notorious reputation on account of the 

 ferocity they display to the white man, cannot but tax to the 

 uttermost the canaeity and nerve of the officer in command. I 

 can recall more than one anxious moment, and probably there were 

 others known only to those concerned in the navigation of the ship, 

 when on our suddenly getting soundings in the middle of the night 

 in a [)lace where we expected to find " a hundred fathoms and no 

 bottom," I set about putting my journals together in order not to 

 lose what I had been at so much pains to obtain. Towards the 

 completion of the survey, however, it was ascertained by Lieutenant 

 Oldham that the ship might have sailed without danger over any of 

 the isolated reef's which were not indicated at the surface by either 

 a sand-key or an islet ; but this was a character of the reefs that 

 was only ascertained by a process more pleasing to talk about than 

 to undergo. 



Before quitting this subject, I should refer to an apparent 

 injustice wliich exists in the apportioning of no iextra pa}'^ to the 

 men employed in detached boat- work in the surveying service. With 

 the exception of an issue of clothing, gratis, the boats' crews receive 

 little or nothing in the form of a reward. I am strongly inclined to- 

 believe that the recognition, even in a slight degree, of the arduous 

 character of their work, which is of quite an exceptional character as 

 compared with the routine-employment on board the ordinary man- 

 of-war, would do much towards increasing the interest usually 

 displayed by the men employed in such a service. 



