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Point Venns. 149
of the poorer class paddle out on the reef at night, and spear fish
by torchlight as of old, so that every night the reefs outside the
harbour are gaily illumined by these torch fires.
A few days after our arrival at Papiete, I made an excursion
to Point Venus, the northern extremity of Matavai Bay, in company
with a party of our surveying officers, who wished to take
sights at this station for Chronometrie measurements of longitude ;
Point Venus being one of the secondary meridians to which longitudes
in the Pacific are referred. The distance from Papiete is
about six miles. We went in one of the ship’s steam cutters,
taking a small boat in tow; and after a somewhat hazardous
passage among the reefs, which here form an irregular barrier
along the coast, we reached Matavai Bay. We landed easily
upon a smooth sloping beach of black volcanic sand— the detritus
brought down from the hills by a neighbouring stream ; and while
the observers established themselves and their instruments on a
grass plot near the base of the lighthouse, I took a stroll into the
surrounding country, having at my disposal about five hours.
The French keeper of the lighthouse, who was most obliging,
pointed out to us a square slab of coral rock imbedded in the
ground, and bearing on its surface a deeply-chiselled groove. It
was placed there some ten years ago, to replace one which had
been fixed there in the year 1839 by Captain Wilkes, of the
United States Fxploring Fxpedition, and was, I understand, intended
to assist in determining the exact position of a submerged
:oral knoll, some 100 yards from the shore, on which measure-
lents were made for determining the rate of growth of the coral.
We were also shown a large and venerable tamarind tree near the
lighthouse, which is said to have been planted more than 100
years ago by our own great navigator. Cook. Cocoanuts, breadfruit,
oranges, bananas, and mangoes, grew in great profusion, and
the greatest and most good-natured eagerness was shown by the
natives in putting these delicious fruits at our disposal.
We also saw a large extent of cleared land devoted to the