Oct. 1835. 



SMOKE ANCHOR IN CRATER. 



495 



eastern height of Albemarle, smoke was seen issuing from 

 several places near the summit, but no flame. Profiting by 

 every breeze, we hastened towards Tagus (or Banks) Cove. 



Narborough Island is exactly like a part of Albemarle — a 

 great volcano, whose base is surrounded by an extensive field 

 of lava : it is utterly barren and desolate. A few mangroves, 

 on the sandy beaches near Albemarle Island, are not seen in 

 the distance ; neither are there enough of them even to diminish 

 the dismal appearance of the island. 



We entered the passage in the afternoon, and anchored in the 

 little cove first described by Capt. Pipon, who then commanded 

 H.M.S. Tagus. This cove is the crater of an extinct volcano, 

 and its sides are so steep as to be almost inaccessible.^ 



1st October. Our first object was to find water : none could 

 be got in the cove, but at a short distance from it a few 

 holes were found, out of which a bottle might be filled in 

 an hour. Around this scanty spring draining continually 

 through the rock, all the little birds of the island appeared 

 to be collected, a pretty clear indication of there being then 

 no other fresh- water within their reach : yet during the rainy 

 season there must be considerable streams, judging by gullies 

 which are worn in the rock. All the heights hereabouts, and 

 the sides of the craters, are composed of sandstone that looks 

 like fine sandy mud half baked ; but the low grounds are 

 lava. The crater in which we anchored gave me the idea of 

 its having been a mud volcano. The climate is very different 

 from that of the Windward Islands; for wind clouds and rain 

 appear to be obstructed in their northward passage, by the 

 heights on the southern part of this island. The heat is here 

 far greater than in other parts of the archipelago, and the 

 land is more sterile. Numbers of another sort of iguana were 

 seen for the first time, and many were killed and eaten. In 

 size and shape they resemble the black kind, but their colour 



* In 1825 H.M.S. Blonde, commanded by Lord Byron, anchored here. 

 Tn her voyage (pp. 92, 93, 94) the black and the red (or brown) iguanas 

 are described, and it is stated that a specimen of the black kind was 

 Ibrought to England from Mexico. Lord Byron saw a volcano burning on 

 Narborough Island. 



