196 LAKEMBA AND SAVU-SAVU. 
made signal for a boat, for my men had nothing to eat, and had 
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 protected by the 
extensive reef reaching from Savu-savu Point on the east, to Kom- 
belau on the west, excepting a large opening of about a mile in width, 
two miles distant from Savu-savu Point. On anchoring 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- 
tance from the beach, and are nine feet above the level of high water ; 
they occupy a basin forty feet in diameter, about half-way between 
the base of the hill and the beach. A small brook of fresh water, 
three feet wide by two deep, passes so close to the basin, that one 
