Dec] 



BOUVETTE'S ISLAND. 



59 



o'clock, A. M., the boats were manned and sent on shore to finish taking 

 the jackets of those seal which had been left dead on the beach by the 

 first party. 



Relying on the correctness of my officer's report, I naturally con- 

 cluded that there were seal in sufficient numbers on this island, not 

 only to complete the cargo of our present voyage, but also to furnish 

 cargoes for many others ; the island being at least twenty-five miles 

 in circumference. The island of Masafuero, in the Pacific Ocean, of 

 about the same dimensions, has been known to produce upwards of 

 three millions. Here also, at Bouvette's Island, on the western shore, 

 was fine anchorage inside of the immense number of ice-islands which 

 lay in that quarter, from one to three miles off-shore, all of them 

 aground in from ten to one hundred fathoms of water. Some of these 

 ice-islands were a mile in circumference, and lay so close to each 

 other that it was with difficulty we got the vessel between them to the 

 anchorage alluded to. We finally succeeded, however, and anchored 

 on the north-west side of the island, in seventeen fathoms of water, 

 about half a mile from the shore. In this situation we lay entirely 

 sheltered, by the ice-islands on one side and Bouvette's on the other, 

 from whatever point of the compass the wind might blow. 



At nine, P. M., the boats returned with one hundred and twelve clap- 

 match and wig-skins ; and on the morning of the eighth, at three, A. M., 

 I again sent the boats on shore to examine the island, and discover 

 some new seal-rookeries. But to our, extreme disappointment and 

 mortification, after sailing completely round the island, not another 

 spot could be found on which a seal could land ; the shores being 

 either perpendicular or covered by projecting cliffs. 



This island is evidently of volcanic origin ; even the rocks having 

 been melted by former eruptions into a complete mass of lava, pre- 

 senting the appearance of blue and green glass. There are some 

 small spots of vegetation on the hill-sides ; but the mountain, which 

 rises about three thousand feet above the level of the sea, is covered with 

 pumice-stone — that spongy, light, crumbling substance, which is gene- 

 rally cast out from the volcanic entrails of burning mountains. Who 

 can declare how many ages have elapsed since the fires were ex- 

 tinguished which once raged in the bosom of this mountain ! — He 

 alone who laid the foundations of the earth. The shores of this island 

 abound with fish, and innumerable oceanic birds frequent the rocks 

 and icebergs in their breeding season. I have no doubt that there is some 

 other land in the vicinity of this ; and I think the most likely place to 

 seek for it would be to the south. 



December 8th. — At seven o'clock, P. M., on Sunday, the eighth, we 

 got under way, and left this inhospitable island ; steering to the south 

 and east, with a fine breeze from the south-west, and fair weather, 

 which continued until Thursday, the twelfth, when the wind com- 

 menced blowing a strong breeze from the north-east, attended with a 

 thick snow-storm. 



December 13th. — On Friday, the 13th, being in latitude 60° II' S., 

 long. 10° 23' E., the wind moderated, and the weather became clear; 

 at which time we found ourselves in the midst of a vast field of drift- 



