EXPLORATION OF PEEL ISLAND. "77 



From careful observation, I am inclined to believe that Port Lloyd was at one time the crater 

 of an active volcano, which threw up the surrounding line of hills ; and that the present 

 entrance was a deep fissure in the side of the cone, through which streams of lava were poured to 

 the bottom of the sea ; and, when it had acquired a sufficient depth, the water came in, and has 

 gradually been filling up its original central depth by deposit and coral formation. The deep 

 excavations on the sides, of which I have already spoken, were, no doubt, the~craters of smaller 

 volcanoes on the declivity of the large one, as is seen in active volcanoes at this time. In 

 this manner, I conceive, the hills more distant from the grand crater had their origin. 



The soil is mostly vegetable mould, which has been forming for thousands of years/from the 

 gradual decomposition of a most luxuriant vegetation ; intermixed with it is the detritus result- 

 ing from the disintegration of trap-rocks, which for ages have been exposed to the influence of the 

 elements, and which has been washed into the plains and valleys, until it has acquired a thick- 

 ness, in many places, of five and six feet. At several places, near the summit of the peaks, it 

 is of a reddish color, looking not very unlike iron-clay ; this was particularly the case on the 

 smaller Paps. 



The springs in the northern half of the island are very few — only two that run constantly 

 and contain fresh and palatable water. There are several others in the valleys ; but the water 

 is so brackish that it cannot be used, or they only exist during the rainy months. Most of the 

 houses on the beach are supplied from wells, which generally are not more than ten or twelve 

 feet deep. The only incidental sources of water are the heavy rains, which in some seasons fall 

 and fill up the deep pools or caverns worn in the bottoms of the ravines, where it continues 

 fresh and fit for use many weeks, by being covered by thick overhanging palms. 



The Flora is tropical, and perhaps as beautiful as can be found under similar latitudes. In 

 the valleys, and along the sea-beach, numerous handsome green trees are growing, called cru- 

 meno by the people living here. It attains a large size ; the trunk is thick and short ; bark grey 

 not very thick ; grain twisted and tough ; the foilage very dense ; leaves large and oval, smooth 

 and of a bright-green color ; petioles short, the leaves growing in thick clusters or whorls around 

 the branches ; and from the terminal ends of the latter the peduncles grow out, bearing beautiful 

 clusters of white rotate, polyandrous, monogynous flowers. Ascending the mountain sides 

 dense forests of palms are seen, growing nearly to the highest summits. They stand so close 

 together, that but few of them become of a very large size, and they also prevent the growth of 

 nearly all other vegetation. There are six species on the island, of which the fan palm (corypha 

 umbracaulifera) is by far the most numerous. Many of these trees seen growing in ravines had 

 their roots above ground five and six feet, looking like branches growing downwards. A variety 

 of fraxinus was at several places discovered, which had grown more than two feet thick, and 

 was covered with several kinds of parasites. There is another species of large tree, in some 

 respects resembling the dog wood, growing abundantly on the mountain. The trunk is two and 

 three feet thick ; grain twisted ; bark gray and thin ; leaves oval, petiolate, green color ; flowers 

 rotate ; calyx greenish, polyandrous and monogynous. The largest of all trees found on 

 any of the Bonins is the mulberry, (morns,) which in some instances is thirteen and fourteen 

 feet in circumference. The other principal trees and plants seen, were one species of laurus, 

 juniper, boxwood, tree-fern, banana, orange, pineapple., whortleberry, (vacciniece,) vitacece, and 

 several varieties of undergrowth. The juniper, in a few instances, was found quite large, but 

 generally it was small and dwarfish, particularly on the sides of the Paps. The laurus cam- 

 phora was nowhere seen, although it was carefully sought after. The tree-ferns (filices) were 



