VISIT Ml AM RLE KEY. 



May 6. — Blowing fresh, with rather dirty weather, 

 making it imprudent to run in for the shoal water, so 

 we stood to the southward, and anchored at noon 

 under Bramble Key, in order to get sights for 

 the chronometers. I have already mentioned the 

 volcanic rocks which jut up in the middle of this 

 reef. The reef itself is almost entirely composed, 

 as to its surface, of one coral, pocillopora ccerulrca, 

 of a greyish colour outside, hut a beautiful blue when 

 broken open. It occurred in large, flat, stool-like 

 masses, with indented edges, often as much as one 

 or two yards in diameter. 1 never saw it elsewhere, 

 except as small detached blocks of coral, in the hol- 

 lows and holes of a reef. The sand-key on one side 

 of the reef was precisely similar in appearance and 

 structure to ltaine's Islet, except that it was much 

 smaller. It equally abounded with " spinach" and 

 bird's eggs, and any ship coming in from the Pacific 

 in want of fresh provisions might get enough for some 

 days' consumption by stopping there, taking care to 

 break all the eggs on the island as soon as they 

 arrive, in order to have new-laid ones to carry away 

 with them. 



It will be seen, on reference to the map, that 

 Bramble Key is a solitary reef, much nearer ad- 

 vanced than any other to the part of the New 

 Guinea coast where all the mud and fresh water 

 had been met with by us. I do not believe that 

 it could have existed at all as an independent 

 reef, but that it must be looked on merely as a 



