PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
449 
towing overboard with various devices of flying-fish, pieces of cloth, CHAP. 
&c., attached to them, and springing from the water with the rise of 
the ship, in imitation of the action of the flying-fish, but without any May, 
success, and we were happy to take a lesson from our new acquaint- 
ances. Their lines were similar to ours, but their snoeuds were made 
of wire, and their hooks, when properly baited, were quite concealed in 
the body of a flying-fish which had one side of the flesh cut away. 
Several lines thus prepared were allowed to run out to the length 
of about ten fathoms, and when the dolphins were near, speed was 
given to the canoe, that the bait might have the appearance of a fish 
endeavouring to escape pursuit. In this manner several were taken 
at no great distance from us. If the fish happened to be large, the line 
was carefully drawn in, and they were harpooned with an instrument 
which every canoe carried for the purpose. 
We stood towards Loo Choo, accompanied by several of these 
canoes, until within a few miles of the land, when, fearing to be seen 
from the shore, they quitted us, first making signs for us to go round 
to the other side of the island. 
About sunset the wind left us close off the south extremity of the 
Great Loo Choo ; and all the next day it was so light that the boats 
were obliged to tow the ship toward the harbour. This slow progress 
would have been far less tedious had we been able to see distinctly 
the country we were passing, and the villages situated in the bays at 
the back of the reefs ; but this prospect was unfortunately destroyed by a 
dense haze which rendered every distant object indistinct, and tantalized 
our expectations by the variety of fallacious appearances it created. 
Our course, until four o’clock in the afternoon, was along the western 
side of Loo Choo, between it and a reef lying about midway be- 
tween this western shore and the Kirrama islands. About that time 
we arrived off Abbey Point, and were entering the harbour of Napa- 
keang, guided by our charts, when we were obliged to drop the anchor 
to avoid striking upon a coral bank, with only seven feet water on its 
shallowest part. Upon examination we found that this bank, which 
had hitherto escaped observation, had a deep channel on both sides of 
it ; we therefore weighed, and steered through the southern passage. 
3 M 
