208 CARKINGTON ISLAND. 



the remainder of this part of the work from the eastward, employ- 

 ing mules, if possible, to furnish the party making it with provisions 

 and water. 



Both parties, therefore, proceeded to Carrington's Island, 

 which we reached late in the afternoon, effecting a landing on its 

 southern shore. It rained heavily and was very cold, with a gale 

 from the northward ; and we landed wet and almost frozen, having 

 spent one of the most disagreeable days we had yet endured upon 

 the survey. Continually baffled by shoals, which could not be seen 

 until the boat grounded upon them, the whole day had been con- 

 sumed in making a distance which, under ordinary circumstances, 

 might have been accomplished in a few hours. 



The two following days were occupied in the survey of this 

 island, and of a small one about five miles to the northward of it. 

 The water between them is quite shoal, the deepest being only six 

 and a-half feet. 



The station previously erected upon the summit of Carrington's 

 Island had been torn down, doubtless by some wandering Indians, 

 as we saw the remains of their fires in the immediate vicinity. 

 They were probably attracted by the cloth with which it was 

 covered, and must have reached it by wading and swimming to the 

 island from the mainland. 



The slate found when we first landed upon this island abounds 

 also in various localities. Quartzose rock, generally with a dip of 

 5° to the south-east, was observed in large boulders on the southern 

 slope, veined with thick seams of white quartz. Limestone was 

 also found on the south-west portion of the island, near the base of 

 the hill. On the north-east point was an outcrop of quartzose rock 

 plentifully seamed with white and ferruginous quartz. Striated 

 talcose slate, very much contorted, occurred in the centre of the 

 island, and, to the west, gray granite, with quartzose conglomerate. 

 The island is about eight miles in circumference, exclusive of the 

 flats, which stretch out from it to the southward and westward, and 

 which are more extensive than the island itself, being terminated 

 on the west by the rocky reef passed on Friday night. 



It abounds in the sego, (Oalochortus luteus,) which is beginning 

 to seed, and, with its beautiful white, lily-like flowers, whitens 

 and enlivens the gentle slopes of the island. A large number of 

 other plants was also collected here, among which Cleomelutea^ Si- 

 dalcia neo mexicana, Malvastrum coccineum^ Stephanomeria minor y 



