NAUTICAL SURVEYING. 11 



dry my clothes in the sun, I noticed that another ten minutes elapsed 

 before a breaker of similar size rolled in, 



I will concluda this chapter with some observations * on the 

 nature of the woi'k performed by the officers of the survey. The 

 usual experiences of a nautical surveyor, when detached from his 

 ship for periods varying from a few days to a fortnight or more, are 

 little known outside the circle of those more immediately interested 

 in the work of the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty. 

 They would afford, as I have often thought, materials for an 

 interestiiig volume, the perusal of which would give the general 

 reader some idea of what nautical survejdng really is. ]t is a 

 work often hazardous and tedious to those engaged in the boats, 

 and frequently full of anxiety for the commander who has to direct 

 the survey. 



The work in the SolomOn Islands had its peculiar, and none 

 the less trying, features. To be detached in a. boat for a week off a 

 ooast, on which it was not considered prudent to land, except on 

 particular points selected for the establishment of theodolite-stations, 

 was a net unconnnon experience with the surveying parties. The 

 alternation of heavy rain and scorching heat served to vary the 

 experience, but not to increase the comfort of those employed from 

 sunrise to sunset in mapping the intricacies of an unsurveyed 

 coast ; and the kihdheartedness of the surveying officer was often 

 sorely tried, when, after a tedious day's work under these conditions, 

 he had to tell off his men to keep a look-out for canoes, and a sharp 

 eye on the land, to see that the boat did not drag. There were, of 

 course, other occasions when the detached parties were engaged 

 in surveying islands, the natives of which were friendly dispo.sed ; 

 and then, if the weather favoured them, the week's absence from 

 the ship partook almost of the nature of a pleasant picnic. In the 

 Solomon Islands, however, a considerable experience of the 

 inhabitants of an island is required before a boat can be sent 

 away with the certain assurance that its occupants will meet with 

 no mishap. The unfortunate massacre of Lieutenant Bower of 

 H.M.S. " Sandfly," and of most of his boat's crew in 1880, whilst 

 employed in the survey of the Florida Islands in this group, is but 

 an example of the uncertainty that there always will be in 

 dealing with these races. Although similar disasters have been 

 recently almost of monthly occurrence in these islands, during our 

 intercourse of 21 months with the natives we did not fire a single 



