meet them again, and endeavor to return some compensation for the provision
furnished during the journey.
The distance we travelled during the six days was 108 miles, as nearly
as we could calculate. Our trip embraced a little more than half the island,
leaving the extremity south of Napha, (which is of limited extent,) and that
part north of the head of Port Melville, and lying on hoth sides of that harbor,
for future exploration.” *
On the return of the party, Mr. Jones submitted the following report to
the Commodore of his observations.
“ Before describing the ancient royal castle of Chun-Ching, which we discovered
in our recent exploration of Lew Chew, it may be well to say a few
words about the geology of the island, as the two are connected with each
other.
Going northward from Napha we find the general surface-rock to be argillaceous,
either compact or shaly, which is intersected, at frequent intervals,
by dykes or ridges of secondary limestone, of a very remarkable character.
When we get as high up as Barrow’s Bay, the argillaceous rock ceases
and is succeeded by talcose slate, in which, however, the same limestone
dykes occur. At the most northern point reached by us, that is, at the village
of Nacumma, on the west side of the island, say forty-two miles north of
Napha, we reached granite, rising there into a hill of some elevation, but so
soft as easily to be cut by a hatchet. This granite is of a grey color, sometimes
almost white ; and its mica, which is black, lies scattered about in the
mass in beautiful six-sided crystals, giving it often a handsome appearance.
The talcose slate has a strike of S. 10° W., and a dip to the W. of 60°.
I t is mixed with quartz and other foreign ingredients of a hard character,
and comes to the surface in sharp jagged edges ; very severe upon the feet.
The argillaceous rock gives some marked features to the island. The
rounded hills south of Barrow’s Bay are all of this. Being soft, it yields
readily to foreign agencies, and is often broken into bare faces, with perpendicular
sides ; and thus, at the head of their valleys, sometimes presents us
with beautiful cascades. I t also forms the chief ingredient in the soil of
the island—in wet weather a very adhesive clay.
But the limestone dykes are the distinguishing feature of, at least, this
portion of Lew Chew. They cross the island in ranges of N. 50° E. and
N. 60° E., rising up into peaks and castellated forms, often so much like
ruins of ancient buildings as to make a near examination necessary in order
to undeceive ourselves. The rock is highly granular, but still has in it, not
unfrequent remains of marine animals. Sometimes it is sufficiently compact
; but, though always hard, it is generally so vesicular, as, when weather-
* This report is from the pen of Mr. Bayard Taylor, who, it will be remembered, was
directed by Commodore Perry to keep a journal of the incidents of the exploration, and make
the report.
j or rava, iui wmcn, maeea, it is oitei
mistaken. Its vesicular character opens it to the action of foreign agencies
and, in oonsequence, along the sea and bay shores it is often undermined b\
the waves, or, if harder pebbles find their way there, is by their friction
worked into kettle-shaped holes, with ragged, knife-shaped edges between
them. Where the roads in Lew Chew are paved, it is with this vesicular
rock; and the pavement can be exceeded, in discomfort to the traveller,
only by the sticky mud, from which it is intended to be a protection.
On the second day of our journey (Tuesday) we were, towards noon,
travelling on the summit of one of these limestone ridges, with precipitous
sides descending on either hand. I was ahead of the party, and saw before
me, by and by, a something, which I took, at first, to be the natural rock
crossing my road ; till, presently, I saw what looked like a window, or some
such opening, at its top. A nearer approach showed it, to my great surprise
to be the old deserted castle of Chun-Ching.
The builders had taken advantage of a spot where the two perpendicular
faces of the ridges approached each other sufficiently near; and
here, on the edges of the natural rock, had erected their walls, giving to
the sides of their castle a great additional height; one end, also, was in
part protected by a similar bold face of the rock. The road by which I
came was conducted along outside of the main castle, though it was still
carried through the fortifications, which it entered and left through gateways
m very thick walls. The walls themselves were in the style so common
in Lew Chew, called in architecture the Cyclopean style, though the
stones employed here are much smaller than their archetypes in the old
Cyclopean walls of Greece. The builders of Chun-Ching contrived also
o give their walls that inward curve which seems to have been the
fashion in Lew Chew castellated buildings, and which we see also in the
royal castle in Sheudi.
Since our return I have learnt, through Dr. Bettelheim, that Chun-
Ching was once a royal residence. There were, in early times, seven
kingdoms m Lew Chew, each with its royal castle or capital, and Chun-
Chmg was one of them. The number was afterwards reduced to three
then to one, as it at present remains.
What I have marked as places for burning incense (a, a, &o.) are little
oven-like buildmgs, which are common, also, to their temples and kunq-
kwas, and which Dr. B. tells me are for burning paper. The Lew Ohewans
have a regard, somewhat like the Mahomedans, for any paper with a sacred
name upon i t ; and lest such may be trodden under foot, and so desecrated
they burn them in the little edifices alluded to.
Before dismissing the geology of Lew Chew, I ought to say that, just
south of Nacumma, we crossed, along the shore, numerous patches of
recently formed rocks. The rolled pebbles of the shore, together with