AMSTERDAM AND ST. PAUL. 



57 



The discoverer of St. Paid is unknown, although the name already occurs in 

 a geographical document of the sixteenth century. At the beginning of the 

 following century both islands were well known to the Dutch navigators, and Van 

 Vlaming was the first to land on them in the year 1696. Since that time they 

 have been frequently visited, too often unwillingly, by shipwrecked crews, and 

 since 1841 St. Paul has been permanently occupied by a community engaged in 



Fig. 20. — Amsterdam. 

 Scale 1 : 90,000. 



77°3 



77°34-' East oP ureenwich 



Depths. 



to 124 

 Feet. 



124 Feet and 

 upwards. 



2 Miles 



fishing and otter-hunting. Recently, also, they have been the object of scientific 

 expeditions, notably in 1874, when the French naturalists stationed at St. Paul 

 to observe the transit of Venus utilised the occasion to study the geological 

 structure and prepare charts of both volcanic masses. 



It has often been proposed to establish a port of call at St. Paul on the route 

 to Australia. But under this latitude, although corresponding to that of Palermo 



