islands the depth of the sea cannot be sounded at a
distance of fifty fathoms from the shore, we approached within a mile of
it. This island stretches ten miles in length, from East to West, and is
only four miles broad; it appeared to be a narrow strip of land,
thickly overgrown with low bushes, surrounding a lake in the centre.
Sea-birds only, of which we saw a vast number, appeared to inhabit this
waste. The latitude of the middle of this island we found to be 15 deg.
27', and its longitude 145 deg. 31' 12". According to the chart of Admiral
Krusenstern, it may be the island called Carlshof, discovered in the
year 1722, by Roggewin, the geographical position of which is given
differently on almost every chart, and whose very existence has been
disputed. We were now in the midst of the dangerous Archipelago, and
consulted our safety by riding every night only in parts which we had
surveyed during the day.

After reiterated nightly storms and rains, we shaped our course, with
full sails, on the return of fine weather, due East, for the Palliser
Islands discovered by Captain Cook, and reached them in a few hours. On
board the Rurik, I had only seen their northern side, and I now wished,
astronomically, to determine the southern. Cook mentions these islands
very superficially, so that navigators have fallen into many errors
concerning them. The group consists of a number of small islands
connected by coral reefs, which form a circular chain, and enclose a
large piece of water. When we had reached the southern point of the east
Pallisers, we saw a ridge stretching ten miles westward to two small
islands, and thence taking a northern direction to unite itself at a
considerable distance with larger ones.

Cook, from his own account, did not approach near enough to see this
ridge, and from a distance mistook the two little woody islands it
embraces for the most southerly of a distinct cluster, which he calls
the fourth group of Palliser Islands. I can maintain that there are only
three such groups, as the map which accompanies this volume will show.
At noon we found our latitude to be 15 deg. 42' 19", and the longitude
146 deg. 21' 6".

The above-mentioned two small islands on the reef lay directly North,
and the southern part of the first cluster of Pallisers was no longer
visible. Viewed from this spot, the smaller ones might have been
mistaken by us also for part of another group, if we had not previously
ascertained t