Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

TOYAGE OF H.M.S. ' ALERT,'supplies. We accordingly sailed from Singapore on the 5th February,1882, and steered for the Seychelle Islands, touching ou theway at Colombo,On the 4th of March we reached Bird Island, the most northerlyof the Seychelle group ; and as we remained at anchor there untiltlie following morning, we had an opportunity, among other things,for exploring the island and accomplishing some dredging-work inthe shallow water about the ship. On the next day we steamedover to Mahe, the chief island of the group. After some days spenthere in provisioning and coaling the ship, during which time ourboats did some useful dredging in the channel between Mahe andSt. Anne's Islands, we steamed over to the Amirante group, the mostnortherly of which is only about a day's run from Mahe, \Ye hadorders to make a survey of the Amirantes, and, as far as time wouldpermit, of the other coral islailds which extend thence in an irregularchain southward towards Madagascar.The Amirante group consists altogether of twenty-one low coralislets, resting, with the exception of He des Eoches (which is separatedby a deep channel), on an extensive coral bank, which is 89miles in length, with an average breadth of 19 miles, and whoselong axis lies in a N,N.E. and S.S.W. direction. It is included betweenthe limits of 4° 50^' and 6° 12^-' S. lat., and 53° 45' and52° 50|' E. long., and is thus about 700 miles distant from thenearest part of the East-African coast. Some of the islets andsand-cays of which it is composed, and which are included in theabove enumeration, are so arranged in clusters that for all practicalpurposes the group may be regarded as consisting of nine islets,which have been named African, Eagle, Darros, Des Roches, Poivre,Etoile, Marie Louise, Des Neufs, and Boudeuse Islands.From the Amirantes we moved over to Alphonse Island, whichoccupies an isolated position (50 miles S.W. by S. of the southern,extremity of the Amirante Bank ; and thence proceeded to ProvidenceIsland, which is about 240 miles from the Amirantes ina S.W. by S. direction, and about 2(J0 miles from Cape Amber, inMadagascar. After a short stay at each of these islands, we steamedover to the Glorioso group, which consists of three islands, also ofcoral formation, and situated about 120 miles W. by N. of thenorthern extremity of Madagascar. Every effort was made toinvestigate the fauna and flora of these islands as far as time andother circumstances would permit, so that sufficient materials wereaccumulated to connect their natural history with that of Seychellesto the northward and Madagascar to th^ southward.With our departure from the Glorioso Islands the surveying operationsof the ' Alert ' were brought to a close. On the 12th of Maywe reached Mozambique, whence, after a stay of a few days, weproceeded on our homeward voyage, stopping en route at AlgoaBay,Simon's Baj^, Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena, and Fayal (in theAzores), and arrived in Plymouth Sound on the 3rd of September,1882, after an absence of nearly four years.