116 SHEBBARD ISLES. 



and at that time, and early in the morning, great 

 havoc was usually made among them. Even this 

 small spot produced a fine white, brown-banded 

 Helix, not found elsewhere,— it occurred on the 

 branches of the cotton trees. 



Three days afterwards we ran to the northward 

 ten miles, and anchored under the Sherrard Isles, 

 where our stay was protracted until the 16th by 

 blowing weather. These islets are two in number, 

 a quarter of a mile apart, surrounded and connected 

 by a reef. One is 120 yards in length, sandy, and 

 thinly covered with coarse grass and maritime 

 plants, with a few bushes; the other is only 30 

 j^ards across, and is covered by a clump of small 

 trees of Pemphis acida and Suriana maritima, 

 appearing at a distance Hke mangroves. 



A small low wooded islet off Cape Direction, 

 where I landed for a few hours, was found to be 

 composed entirely of dead coral with thickets of 

 mangrove and other bushes, and presented no fea- 

 ture worthy of further notice. We were detained 

 at an anchorage near Cape Weymouth for seven 

 days by the haziness of the weather, which obscured 

 distant points essential to the connexion of the sur- 

 vey. After having anchored once for the night 

 under the lee of reef " e" of King's chart — one of 

 the most extensive we had hitherto seen, being four- 

 teen miles in length, — on September 26th, the ship 

 anchored under the largest of the Piper Islets. 



This group consists of four low bushy and wooded 



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