LEAVE MAUKITIUS. 39 



prepared skin, or to reproduce, the bright colours for 

 which so many of them are remarkable. Dredging 

 in the harbour was perfectly unsuccessful ; outside 

 the margin of the coral reefs wliich fringe the en- 

 trance to Port Louis one finds a zone of loose blocks 

 of living MeeandrincB, AstrecB, and other massive 

 corals, where dredging is impracticable j to this 

 succeeds a belt of dead shells and small fragments 

 of coral ; and the remainder of the channel is tena- 

 cious mud, in which I found nothing of interest. 



After a pleasant stay of twelve days, we left 

 Mauritius, on May 17th, as soon as the last set 

 of " sights" for rating the chronometers had been 

 obtained, and in due time rounded the north end of 

 the island to a light wind off" the land. In the first 

 watch a distant light was conjectured, with some 

 degree of probabihty, to proceed from the well 

 known active volcano of the Island of Bourbon. 



During our stay at Port Louis, Captain Stanley 

 had complied with a requisition from the Commissa- 

 riat to take some specie to Hobart Town, consequently 

 his previous intention of proceeding- to Sydney, by 

 way of King George's Sound, was abandoned. 



On May 24th (our noon position being in lat. 

 28° 1' S., and long. 67° 30' E.) we tacked to the 

 S. W., having found the impracticability of making a 

 straight course for Cape Leeuwin without first get- 

 ting well to the southward, and in due time we 

 reached the latitudes where westerly winds prevail, 

 and were enabled to proceed onward on our course. 



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