182 October 1854 Bonin Islands full methods of collecting adopted. However I succeeded once in a place called "[illegible]" and on the muddy bottom got many mud- snute shells and a singular little crab (Pai- mixia?) Five or six birds were shot and skinned. We experienced a violent typhoon while lying here - a four feet cyclone, which lashed the water into foam around us and filled the air with spray, while we were congratulating ourselves that we were not at sea, in which case our safety would well have ad- mitted of doubt. A French whaler (the "Nap- oleon, III") lying astern of us was driven a- ground even in this sheltered harbor. The trees were stripped of their leaves and oft of boughs. The coral-covered rocks in three and four fath- om along the shore of this harbor, especially under rocky cliffs, afford feeding-ground for multitudes of beautifully-colored fish, which are however very difficult to take, on account of the nature of the ground, where nets cannot be used. After trying with hook and line in many points of the bay without success, I at last hit upon a spot - the high cliff just below the "Paps", where 183 November 1854 Bonin Islands the fish bit briskly, and afforded me much sport for several days in the afternoons. The Seridace picked up while collecting at low water during the morning afforded us furnished us with late. I used very small lines and hooks to suit the mouths of the fish, but often caught compara- tively heavy fish (279 lbs) with a line no big- ger than pack thread. The extra specimens after taking such as it was proper to preserve furnis- ed our mess with a good meal. Nov 1st-5th - Mostly spent in increasing my collection of fishes. I discovered a new spit (a coral rock 18ft in diameter, on a shoal) where they were still more abundant than at the first. In all I secured about 50 species at this place, and probably twice that number exist here. On one occasion I shoved my boat (a small red cockle-shell made of iron) into a deep cleft of a rocky bluff, where from a favorable direction of the light I could see clearly everything at the depth of two to four fathoms. Bril- liantly-painted and strangely shaped fishes were swimming about along the sides of the cliff in great numbers, and I counted at least 20 kinds of which I had not secured a specimen,