GEOLOGY- 
170 
Coi'al reefs border some places of the shore, and have not yet reached the water’s 
level ; and corals, with sand and shells, from the bottom at a little greater distance. 
The rocks of the more extensive volcanic formation are generally a grey tufaceous 
basalt, often coloured with a greenish tint ; it contains numerous nodules of chalcedony 
and of carnelian ; zeolites often occur abundantly, particularly stilbite ; olivine and 
hornblende are also not uncommon. The geodes were often found containing water ; 
and although frequently covered with the sea, the liquid, when obtained by breaking thq 
hollow stone, is said not to taste salt. I was not fortunate enough to see any of it. 
Angular basaltic columns were not unfrequent, and in one place they were divided 
horizontally into joints at short distances, as at the Giant’s Causeway. In the bed of 
the river at the bottom of the harbour in which we lay, there is a sort of tessellated 
pavement, composed of upright angular columns placed side by side, each about one 
inch diameter, and separated by horizontal fissures ; it resembled the lower part of the 
Giant’s Causeway in miniature. 
The two men who had voluntarily remained here after the wreck of the William 
whaler in the month of September preceding our visit, informed us that they had felt 
the shocks of earthquakes several times, but never so strong as to throw them off their 
legs ; and that one night in the month of January, the tide suddenly rose about twenty 
feet above its wonted level, overflowed their house, which was near the beach, and 
made them fly to the mountains for safety. They said they had observed some of 
the peaks, more especially after rainy weather, to vomit forth volumes of smoke like 
that which arises from a foundry, but never any light, nor have they seen any ashes 
falling. Scoriae are, however, pretty common near the surface. It is possible that 
these men mistook the light cloud formed near this elevated peak, by its cooling and 
condensing the moisture of the passing air, for the denser smoke of a volcano. We saw 
clouds forming in this way. 
A luxuriant vegetation covers the larger of these islands, from the sea to their 
highest peaks. Trees constitute nearly the whole of this vegetation, and the tall slender 
trunks, crowned with the spreading bunches of leaves of the cabbage and fan-palms 
(areca olearica and coryptia rotundifolia), communicate a characteristic feature to the 
scenery. The pandanus odoratissimus, the tamanu of Tahiti, some species of laurel, 
the terminalia, shrubby species of urtica, the dodonea viscosa, the elasocarpus serratus, 
and several others new to us, are common. A considerable variety of herbaceous plants, 
and of ferns, also grow partly under the shade of the lofty trees, or freely exposed on the 
jutting rocks. 
PORT CLARENCE, AND COAST BETWEEN IT AND KOTZEBUE’S SOUND. 
Port Clarence is situated at the end of an irregular and deep incurvation of the 
coast, between Point Rodney and Cape Prince of Wales, and in lat. 65° 17' N., long. 
166° 48' W. It is formed of two wide basins ; the outer one separated from the sea, 
except at the entrance, by a low and long spit of alluvial formation, called Point Spen- 
cer ; and the inner basin, called Grantley Harbour, being divided from the outer by a 
