ing island, was 15 and 16 fathoms. The north extreme of
the south island lay three miles to the south east of the Mangrove
Islets, by which we found that its length was nearly ten miles, with a
general width of about a tenth of a mile.

One of the eastern Mangrove Islets was a mere caY, formed of large flat
pieces of dead coral, of the same kind as that of which I have before
spoken as resembling a fan, strewed over a limestone foundation one foot
above the level of the sea, in the greatest possible confusion, to the
height of five feet. In walking over them they yielded a metallic sound.
Pelsart, like Easter Group, is marked by a detached islet lying a mile
off its north-east extreme.

May 3.

We fetched in under the Lee of Easter Group as the north-west gale of
this morning commenced. The barometer did not indicate the approach of
the gale, falling with it, and acting as in those we had encountered at
Swan River.

SINGULAR SUNSET.

The sunset of the two days preceding had presented a very lurid
appearance, and the most fantastically shaped clouds had been scattered
over the red western sky. It seemed as though nature had determined to
entertain us with a series of dissolving views. Headlands and mountains
with cloud-capped pinnacles appeared and faded away; ships under sail
floated across the sky; towers and palaces reared their forms
indistinctly amid the vapour, and then vanished, like the baseless fabric
of a dream.

The winds since the 29th had been very easterly; but early on the 1st
became fresh from north-east; a stagnant suspicious calm then succeeded,
during the forenoon of the 2nd. At noon the glassy surface of the water
began to darken here and there in patches with the first sighing of the
breeze, which soon became steady at north-west, and troubled the whole
expanse as far as the eye could reach.

HEAVY GALE.

It was not, however, as I have said, before daylight of the 3rd that the
gale commenced in earnest, continuing with great violence, accompanied
with heavy squalls of rain, till noon next day, when the wind had veered
to South-South-West. During this time the whole aspect of the scene was
changed; immense dark banks of clouds rested on the contracted horizon;
the coral islands by which we were surrounded loomed indistinctly through
the driving mist; and the decks were drenched by heavy showers that
occurred at intervals. The wind blew hardest from West-North-West, and
began to moderate abo