50 A Visit to Damma Island: 



on board the ' Penguin ' to call at Damma on the voyage 

 from Port Darwin to Hong Kong, and to survey tlie principal 

 anchorage, Koelewatte Bay — a service which would occupy 

 several days in its execution, and afforded us a prospect of 

 work on a spot hitherto almost untouched by a naturalist. 



The ' Penguin ' sailed from Port Darwin on October 28th, 

 1891, and a few days were occupied in the survey of the 

 " Flinders Bank " and other shoals on the edge of the region 

 of comparatively shallow soundings which extends for a long 

 distance from this part of the north coast of Australia. This 

 work being completed on November 4th, we shaped our 

 course for Damma, which was sighted at sunset on the follow- 

 ing day. This island rises abruptly from profoundly deep 

 ■water, a depth of several hundred fathoms being found in the 

 entrance of Koelewatte Bay itself; and at a distance of about 

 forty miles to the southward we reached bottom at 2637 

 fathoms. Although at first sight Koelewatte Bay has the 

 appearance of a commodious harbour, the available space for 

 anchorage is very limited, the upper part being greatly en- 

 cumbered with sand-banks and coral-reefs, while it is fully 

 open to the easterly monsoon, which sends in a heavy sea. 

 At the time of our visit the weather was very fine and calm, 

 and we lay snugly enough in twenty fathoms water close to 

 the shore, opposite the crumbling remains of what had once 

 been a very strongly built stone watch-tower, of unknown 

 origin and antiquity. 



Soon after we anchored, at 6.30 A.M. on November 6th, 

 the " Posthonder," or representative of the Netherlands 

 Government, came off to the ship in a dug-out canoe to pay 

 his official visit. He was a tall, grey-bearded old man, a 

 Macassar half-caste, and was dressed in the orthodox but 

 most uncomfortable black cloth coat which is de rigueur on 

 all occasions of ceremony throughout the Dutch possessions 

 in this part of the world. His staff of office was a gold- 

 headed cane surmounted by the Royal arms of Holland. No 

 European lives here permanently, but the Resident of Am- 

 boyna, under whose rule Damma is placed, visits the island 

 annually in a man-of-war, and the mail steamer which makes 

 the round of the Aru, Kei, and other remote islands of the 

 Far East, calls here once in three months for a few hours. 

 This is the sole communication of Damma with the outside 

 world. 



We remained at anchor in Koelewatte Bay until the even- 

 ing of November 11th, and during our stay the harbour was 

 surveyed, a full series of observations to determine the 

 magnetic elements was made, and the Doctor and I were able 



