sea, I was able to inspect, in all its development, this small and wooded island of Clermont-Tonnerre. Its madreporical rocks were evidently fertilised by water-spouts and tempests. One day some corn, carried by a hurricane from neighbouring islands, fell upon its calcareous formation, mixed with the detritus which forms the vegetable mould, and which is made of decomposed fish and marine plants. A cocoa-nut, impelled by the waves, reaches this new coast. The germ takes root, the tree grows, absorbs the watery vapour. The stream is born, vegetation increases apace. Animalcules, worms, insects, arrive upon these island beginnings. Turtles come and lay their eggs there. The birds build their nests in the young trees, In this way animal life is developed, and attracted by the verdure and fertility, man appears. Thus these islands are formed, the vast works of microscopic animals.
Towards evening Clermont-Tonnerre disappeared in the distance, and the course of the Nautilus was sensibly diverted. After touching the Tropic of Capricorn at the 130° degree of longitude, she turned to the W.N.W., ascending towards the intertropical zone. Although the summer sun was extremely powerful, we did not suffer from the heat, for at thirty or forty yards below the surface the temperature did not increase more than ten or twelve degrees.
On the 15th December we passed the Society Isles and Tahiti, the queen of the Pacific. In the morning I perceived the elevated summits of the mountains of that island. Its waters supplied us with some excellent fish—mackerel, bonita, albicoras, and a variety of sea-serpent, called “muneoplics.” The Nautilus had ac-
