114 | 
five hundred yards, with a bafe of about 
four hundred ; its apex 1s hidden byjthe vatt 
body of thick fmoke that is continually 
hurrying up from within it, and by de- 
tached portions that, having efcaped from 
the violence of the main ftream, are gently 
impelled by a counter- current to fome dif- 
tance down the fides of the mount. 
Thefe fides are ftriated ‘with the over- 
flowings of black Java, which, having 
marked their progrefs through a rich ve- 
getation of cocoa-nut trees, fhew them- 
felves down upon the fhore, where they 
have entered the fea. 
On the weft or lee fide of the ifland the 
fhore bends into a kind of bay, where, as 
the trade blows in general fteadily from 
the eaftward, fhips might ride in fecurity 
for as many hours as they could want to 
ftay. The bottom is, for the moft part, 
a foft clay ; but patches of rock fo foft and 
rotten that they will break when a ftrain is 
hove upon them, but ‘yet fufficiently 
hard to rub the cables, lie fcattered about 
upon it. We anchored in twenty-four 
fathoms, with the volcano bearing north 
55 eaft; the north-weft point of the bay 
north; the fouth- weft point fouth 30 weft, 
a quarter of a mile diftant from a low 
rugged bluff. The bank deepens off fud- 
denly. 
Alamagan is high enough to be fcen 
twelve or fourteen Jeagues. It is lower 
acrofs the middle than at eitherend. A 
fet of afgles that were taken gives its out- 
line fome refemblance to the figure of a 
billhook, and its circumference about 
twelve miles. Its fhores are chiefly rocky 
to windward, but in the bay to leeward 
there are two or three beaches. On one 
of thefe we landed, near the rugged bluff, 
without any difficulty, and it feems pro- 
bable that landing will be found equally 
eafy at all times, if the trade has been 
blowing fteadily or moderately for fome 
days; but if a fhift of wind has lately 
happened, or, as we found, if,it is about to 
take place, the landing will then become 
dangerous or impracticable. Twenty-four 
hours after we anchored, a {well began to 
rojl into the bay, and the furf began to 
break heavy upon the fhore; fo we em- 
barked in the evening, ran out to fea, and 
early the next morning the wind came 
light at weft, with a heavy {well from that 
quarter. On the following day it returned 
to north-eaft. 
We had not attained the objeG&t for 
which we had touched at Alamagan ; 
there was no water to be found. But we 
had got as many cocoa-nuis as could be 
fhipped off in the time; a quantity that 
Copt. Bafs’s Account of the Ifand Alamagan. 
[March 1, 
nearly filled up all the fpare room in the 
brig. Every one can judge of the value 
of {uch a fupply to any fickly thip’s-com- 
pany that might pafs this way. They 
may be procured in any number, and, 
when the beach is fair, fhipped in as fhort 
a time as fuch bufinefs is ufually done in 
any place; for the trees grew clofe down 
even to the very margin of the fea. - 
Water might, no doubt, have been 
gotten by digging holes in the ground in 
fuch places as are well known to be fa- 
vourable for this pupofe; for the gullies 
fhew that it fometimes runs in torrents. 
The afpeét of the lower parts of Ala- 
magan is peculiarly inviting, but the bar- 
ren voleano occupies the north-weft part ; 
and the high fouth and fouth-weft, though 
green, appear fterile. 
Were it not that fome patches of clay 
appear here and there, and efpecially upon 
that part which is the moft diftant from 
the volcano, one might fuppofe that the. 
whole ifland had derived its origin from 
volcanic matters. Nothing feems for fe- 
veral years pati to have been ejeéted from | 
the volcano to a greater diftance than about 
a mile and a half; for at that diftance the 
terraces of cinders are covered with black 
vegetable foil that produces trees and other 
vegetation as large as any upon the ifland ; 
and the nature of thefe elevations would 
pot at once be readily difcoverable, but that 
their fides being too fteep to allow any but 
a {mail quantity of foil to lodge there, 
parts of the lumps of cinders are left ex- 
pofed to view. Approaching nearer to 
the voleano, we meet with feveral lumps 
of cinders, of three or four acres in extent, 
flat and level enough to be walked over, 
after having taken the pains to clamber 
lip eight or ten feet to gain their top. On 
moft of thefe there is not even the {malleft . 
Incipient vegetation. Nearer ftill to the 
bafe of the {moking mount, it is extremely 
painful and dificult to pafs along; for the 
heaps of cinders become more rugged, and 
more perplexing to mount and to defcend.. 
Here a hollow rumbling noife is heard oc- 
cafionally from within the mountain, as if 
fome large body had fallen by leaps from 
a great height there ; and I obferved, as E 
each time involuntarily turned up my 
eyes towards its fummit, that every grum- 
bling produced a temporary increafe of 
fmoke, fo that the crater feemed fcarcely 
Jarge enough to let it pafs through.. 
The ftreams of liquid matter feem to 
have run ever on that fide of the crater 
next the fea; none appearing on the land. 
fide. 
I fhould judge from the appearance of 
this. 
