192 



VOLCANIC ERUPTION. 



[1825. 



This bay is small, but very convenient for vessels to recruit in ; and 

 as safe as any that is not entirely sheltered. 



Vessels in want of refreshments can here supply themselves with 

 pork in abundance, for the trouble of shooting the wild hogs, which 

 have multiplied greatly since the breed was first left here by Captain 

 Colnett. The waters In the bays and round the shores are teeming 

 with fish of various kinds. Eels are also abundant and large ; turtles 

 are numerous, but appear shy of coming to land, which is frequented 

 by astonishing numbers of white and brown rats, and land-crabs of a 

 prodigious size. Sharks are said to assemble round this island in large 

 shoals, to feast upon the more diminutive finny tribes that abound 

 here. 



The best course for those who wish to anchor in the western bay 

 is to go round the south-western point of the island, hugging that point 

 close on board ; and when in the bay, to moor head and stern. The 

 tide rises on the shores of this island twice in twenty-four hours, with- 

 out any apparent current ; the night tides are estimated at ten feet, 

 those of the day not quite so much. It is high-water two hours and 

 ten minutes after the moon passes the meridian. 



February 6th. — Having examined this island to our satisfaction, and 

 taken on board a plentiful supply of cocoanuts, we sailed for the Galla- 

 pagos Islands on Sunday, the sixth of February, with the wind from 

 east-south-east, attended with light rain. On the following day we 

 took the wind from north-north-east, with much rain ; this was suc- 

 ceeded by variable winds until we arrived in latitude 2° 0' N., long. 

 89° 0' W., when we took the wind from south-east, with fair weather. 



February 10th. — On Thursday, the tenth, at six, A. M., we arrived 

 at the Gallapagos Islands, in Banks's Bay, and anchored in Albemarle 

 Basin, in four fathoms of water, sandy bottom. At eight, A. M., the 

 boats were sent in search of fur-seals ; but soon discovered that we 

 had reaped the harvest in the previous voyage ; for there were very 

 few fur-seals to be seen around the islands. In a few days we com- 

 menced gathering terrapins, or elephant tortoises. 



February 14th. — On Monday, the fourteenth, at two o'clock, A. M., 

 while the sable mantle of night was yet spread over the mighty Pacific, 

 shrouding the neighbouring islands from our view, and while the still- 

 ness of death reigned everywhere around us, our ears were suddenly 

 assailed by a sound that could only be equalled by ten thousand thun- 

 ders bursting upon the air at once ; while, at the same instant, the 

 whole hemisphere was lighted up with a horrid glare that might have 

 appalled the stoutest heart! I soon ascertained that one of the volca- 

 noes of Narborough Island, which had quietly slept for the last ten 

 years, had suddenly broken forth with accumulated vengeance. 



The sublimity, the majesty, the terrific grandeur of this scene baffle 

 description, and set the powers of language at defiance. Had the fires 

 of Milton's hell burst its vault of adamant, and threatened the heavens 

 with conflagration, his description of the incident would have been ap- 

 propriate to the present subject. No words that I can command will 

 give the reader even a faint idea of the awful splendour of the great 

 reality. 



