172 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SlAM AND MALACCA 



the evening- we had calm, which lasted part of the night. 



22. — We had calm through the whole night, and only 

 towards 7 o'clock there was a little north-east wind. We passed 

 as near as |- of a mile by an island, the w^ater being twenty 

 fathoms deep ; the shores looked sterile. I fished frequently for 

 Fncus natans and /eiulif/erus. About two o'clock in the afternoon 

 jiassed quite close by the island, which is called Cape Liand in the 

 charts. The siratums of earth were distinctly visible, as they 

 descended slantingly from north-east to south-west; they con- 

 sisted of stony strata resembling a Cos; their (Stalhander) were 

 probably red and white ( bands ). Here and there we perceived 

 on the perpendicular walls some fine green plant, which much 

 resembled the J.ijcopodiuiii plilegmatitis. The steep slopes moreover 

 were often covered with light green plants, looking more like 

 moss. 



23. — We advanced moderately, and in the afternoon we 

 came to a harbour, where we had some high pointed mountains 

 on the left and a chain of islands on the right; we intended to 

 pass them by closely, but the fathomless depth of the sea forced 

 us to keep to the harbour. 



One of the steersmen had gone on shore while measuring the 

 depth of the sea, and the natives brought me many rare things, 

 most of them were however fractured. The most remarkable 

 w^as a new Alcyonium. 



24. — I was so lucky to-day as to get the permission to visit 

 one of the islands with the boat belonging to our ship. This 

 island consisted of schistous stones, with many coloured veins, 

 mostly runnin in stripes. Many of them were bright red and 

 porous; now and then I found some sponge-like porous stones of 

 black colour, which no doubt were of volcanic orig-in. The 

 eastern side had a rather projecting sand shore, consisting mostly 

 of shell sand, intermixed with a few grains of quartz. The sea 

 was filled here with many kinds of coral stones. The most peculiar 

 stones which I found, in a slaty white grey fine sand, was a stone 

 Avith thin green stripes like malachite, and another piece which 

 resembled the heavy spatum from the Harz-mountains. The 

 most important plants on the sand were: J'enus musiades, Ulva 

 pai-onia, and lahyritithifornns^ both were frequent; Fucus natans 

 was rarer; further on there was nothing but Ginora. A little 

 deeper inland I saw a plant which had the habit of an Amonum 



