432 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



struck by the same likeness. He considered that the 

 Gambier Islands represented what was left from the 

 erosion of a much larger island with a number of vol- 

 canic craters. It appeared to him to be an intermediate 

 state, of wasting away from atmospheric agencies, be- 

 tween Truk and such a barrier-reef island as Bora Bora 

 in the Society Islands. 



On February 4 the Albatross, her deck loaded with 

 coal, left the archipelago for Acapulco, some three thou- 

 sand three hundred miles to the eastward. Agassiz had 

 calculated that by carefully husbanding his coal he 

 could manage to visit Clipperton Island, as well as con- 

 tinue his sounding and dredging operations. All went 

 well for some days, but when still several hundred miles 

 within what was supposed to be the region of southeast 

 trades, the ship unexpectedly struck a strong and con- 

 tinuous head wind. The visit to Clipperton Island was 

 given up, and all work abandoned except the morning's 

 soundings. As the head winds continued with increased 

 violence, it became evident that every ton of coal would 

 have to be watched to enable the ship to reach port. 

 During the last few days the situation became so ex- 

 tremely critical that Agassiz and the Captain consulted 

 as to the possibility of reaching some island to leeward, 

 under what little sail they were able to spread. As the 

 Albatross under these conditions would have behaved 

 much like a raft propelled by a pocket handkerchief, 

 the merest landlubber can, from a glance at the chart, 

 easily imagine the feelings of the leader of the expedi- 

 tion and the commander of the ship. When, at length, 

 with only a few hours' coal in the bunkers, the chain 

 rattled through the hawse-pipe in Acapulco Harbor, it 

 lifted a great weight from two very anxious men, who 



