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BIRD ISLAND— ALLIGATOR ROCKS. [1828. 



Mercury Island, and examining the interior of the country at a great 

 distance inland, we got under way, on Thursday, the 6th of Novem- 

 ber, and steered to the north, for Bird Island, where we arrived on the 

 following day. 



This little island, which is not more than the fourth of a mile in 

 circumference, is in latitude 24° 38' S., long. 14° 22' E., and about 

 three leagues from the mainland. A reef of rocks runs off from it, 

 in a south-west direction, about five miles, on which the sea breaks at 

 times very heavily. A vast number of right whales frequent this 

 reef in the months of July and August ; and a ship may lie at an- 

 chor on the north side of the island, in ten fathoms of water, all the 

 whaling season, in perfect safety, if she has chain cables. This 

 island is resorted to by seal, gannets, and penguins ; and we took 

 here the skins of fourteen hundred fur-seal at one time, although the 

 landing was very bad. The passage between the island and the con- 

 tinent is about nine miles in width, free from hidden dangers, with a 

 depth of water from twenty to ten fathoms, near the mainland. 



The Alligator Rocks, as laid down on the chart, I could not find, 

 after two days spent in the search. I therefore conclude that there 

 is no such reef, but that Bird Island has been seen in a haze, and 

 mistaken for a danger which does not actually exist. The extreme 

 haziness of the weather peculiar to this coast might very easily have 

 deceived Captain Wood, of his Britannic majesty's ship Garland, 

 when he thought he had discovered a reef here, in 1798 ; for I have 

 frequently been running along this coast, not more than one league 

 from the land, when the sand-hills which line this part of the coast 

 have appeared to be five or six leagues from the vessel. 



I have no doubt that Bird Island is the effect of some mighty con- 

 vulsion of nature, which has piled together in an irregular form loose 

 blocks of stone, basalt, lava, and other volcanic productions. The 

 waters around its shores, however, abound with many kinds of excel- 

 lent scale-fish, which may be caught with hook and line in great 

 quantities. A few turtle, also, may be found on a small sandy beach 

 on the east side of the island. 



November 15th. — This was William Ogden's birth-day, and the 

 termination of his minority. There was a melancholy interest that 

 hung about this young man, not often noticed among the rough 

 sons of Neptune. Though foremost in the discharge of active and 

 hazardous duties, he seemed to shrink within himself the moment 

 there was no further demand for his exertions. When rallied on his 

 abstraction, he would by a sudden effort rouse himself to cheerfulness, 

 and even gayety ; but a cloud would soon come over the sunshine of 

 his countenance. Those who attributed these changes of weather to 

 some affair of the heart were not a thousand leagues off their reck- 

 oning, as I afterward ascertained. 



November 16th. — On Sunday, the 16th of November, we left Bird 

 Island, and continued our examination of the coast to the northward, 

 with a gentle breeze from south-by-west, and fair weather : and, 



November \8th. — On Tuesday, the 1 8th, we arrived at the mouth 

 of what is called Sandwich Harbour, said to have three fathoms of 



