OQg L A K E M B A AND S A V U - S A V U. 



made signal for a boat, for my men bad nothing to eat, and bad 

 exhausted their water. The signal was after some time seen and 

 answered, and a boat sent, but came without any supply. Towards 

 sunset we were relieved from our awkward situation, and shortly 

 after, the tide having risen, I took a reconnaissance of the point of the 

 reef, and went on board. A light breeze springing up, we stood in ; 

 but the wind came out ahead, and I was obliged to send three boats 

 to anchor near the danger, in order to be able to enter. I reached a 

 temporary anchorage on the shelf of the coral reef at midnight. This 

 was the only bottom I could find during the night, and we dropped 

 the anchor in fourteen fathoms. Sounding around the ship, we found 

 she had scarcely room to swing with twenty-five fathoms of chain 

 cable ; but it was better than beating about among reefs, the position 

 of which I was then almost wholly ignorant of. The next morning 

 proved our position to be far from enviable, but the wind kept us 

 off the reef. Some officers and men were sent to search the reef for 

 shells, others were engaged in surveying, whilst with some others I 

 procured another set of observations on the islet, off Savu-savu 

 Point. 



In the afternoon we again got under way, and proceeded farther 

 up the bay, anchoring off Waicama, or the hot springs, in twenty- 

 eight fathoms water. The bay of Savu-savu is a fine sheet of deep 

 water, ten miles in length, east and west, by five miles in breadth, 

 from north to south ; it is surrounded by very high and broken 

 land, rising in many places into lofty needle-shaped peaks ; it is pro- 

 tected by the extensive reef reaching from Savu-savu Point on the 

 east, to Kombolau on the west, excepting a large opening of about a 

 mile in width, two miles distant from Savu-savu Point. On anchor- 

 ing I despatched two boats, under Lieutenants Case and Underwood, 

 to join the surveys we had made in the tender, as far as Rativa 

 Island; they departed the same evening on this duty. The projection 

 of land forming Savu-savu Point is much lower than that on the 

 other sides of the bay. 



I visited the hot springs, which are situated opposite a small island, 

 round which a narrow arm of the bay passes, forming a small har- 

 bour ; a considerable stream of fresh water enters the bay, about a 

 mile above the situation of the springs. On landing, we found the 

 beach absolutely steaming, and warm water oozing through the sand 

 and gravel ; in some places it was too hot to be borne by the feet. 

 The hot springs are five in number ; they are situated at some dis- 



