the village of Tidore, owing to a strong wind light in our
teeth. The country was all cultivated, and. I in vain
searched for any insects worth capturing. One of my men
went out to shoot, hut returned home without a single bird.
At sunset, the wind having dropped, we quitted Tidore,
and reached the next island,• Mareh,- Where we stayed
till morning. The comet was again visible, but not nearly
so brilliant, being partly obscured by clouds,- and dimmed
by the light of the new moon. We then rowed across to the
island of Motir, which is so surrounded with coral-reefs
that it is dangerous to approach. These are perfectly flat,
and are only covered at high water,, ending in craggy
vertical walls of coral in very deep water. When there is a
little wind, it is dangerous to come near these rocks ; but
luckily it was quite smooth, so we moored to their edo-e
while the men crawled over the reef to the land, to make
a fire and cook our dinner—the boat having no accommodation
for more than heating water for my morning and
evening coffee. We then rowed along the edge of the reef
to the end of the island, and were glad to get a nice
westerly breeze, which carried us over the strait to the
island of Makian, where we arrived about 8 p .m. The
sky was quite clear, and though the moon shone brightly,
the comet appeared with quite as much splendour as
when we first saw it.
The coasts of these small islands are very different
according to their geological formation. The volcanoes,
active or extinct, have steep black beaches of volcanic
sand, or are fringed with rugged masses of lava and basalt.
Coral is generally absent, occurring only in small patches
in quiet bays, and rarely or never forming reefs. Ternate,
Tidore, and Makian belong to this class. Islands of
volcanic origin, not themselves volcanoes, but which have
been probably reeently upraised, are generally more or
less completely surrounded by fringing reefs of coral, and
have beaches of shining white coral sand. Their coasts
present volcanic conglomerates, basalt, and in some places
a foundation of stratified rocks, with patches of upraised
coral. Mareh and Motir are of this character, the outline
of the latter giving it the appearance of having-
been a true volcano, and it is said by Forrest to have
thrown out stones in 1778. The next day (Oct. 12th), we
coasted along the island of Makian, which consists of a
single grand volcano. It was now quiescent,-but about two
centuries ago (in 1646) there was a terrible eruption, which
blew up the whole top of the mountain^ leaving the
I, truncated jagged summit and vast gloomy crater valley
which at this time distinguished it. It was said to have
been as lofty as Tidore before this catastrophe.1
1 Soon after I left the Archipelago, on the 29th of December, 1862,
another eruption of this mountain suddenly took place, which caused
great devastation in the island. All the villages and crops were de.