AN EXPEDITION TO THE SALVAGE ISLANDS. 417 



be well rewarded for his trouble ; but he must take plenty of 

 water as well as food with him, for there are no springs of any 

 kind on this sandy islet. In this respect Great Salvage is better 

 provided, but we only used the water for cooking, though our men 

 drank it with impunity. 



Much as we wished to do so, we did not land on the Little 

 Piton, though our pilot informed us we might have managed it that 

 day, as the weather was sufficiently favourable. Our captain was 

 anxious to be off, and we were afraid of missing our vessel at Las 

 Palmas — a needless fear, as it turned out, for she remained taking 

 in fruit for two days after we were supposed to sail, to our infinite 

 disgust, as we hardly dared leave the mole, never being certain 

 when the last lot of tomatoes or bananas would arrive. Our being 

 unable to visit Little Piton was the more to be regretted, for none 

 but the Spanish fishermen — and very few of them — have ever 

 landed there on account of the surrounding dangers. Our pilot 

 had been there, and told us that there were neither rats nor mice, 

 and consequently colonies of the White-breasted Petrel bred 

 there unmolested, whilst the small white-rumped species (0. 

 cryptoleucura) , mentioned above, was also common. Money, or 

 rather the want of it, is said to be the bane of one's existence, but 

 want of time must often be equally annoying to the scientific 

 explorer. 



Leaving Great Piton at 11 o'clock, and having bent our 

 awning on to the boat-hook and made a top-sail of it, we ran 

 straight for Las Palmas before a strong wind and following sea } 

 arriving at our destination by 9 o'clock the next morning. Here 

 we settled up our affairs, but were able to do little or no collecting. 

 On at last reaching Madeira, several days later than we expected, 

 one of our party being obliged to return to England, we made a 

 week's trip to Rabacal, Caramujo, the Ribeira do Inferno, and 

 Fanal, in the wildest parts of the north of that island, and were 

 favoured with glorious weather and luck in our collecting ; but the 

 telling of our Salvage adventures has already taken so long that we 

 must defer giving an account of this charming tour till some later 

 date. Altogether we obtained during our three weeks' collecting 

 over 200 bird-skins, as well as a tolerably complete collection of 

 all the other natural objects met with, and, having brought them 



Lall safely back to England, felt that, besides having thoroughly 

 enjoyed our trip, we had not laboured in vain. 



