missing, and upon inquiry were ascertained to have been absent nearly all day. We dispersed and looked for them in every direction until dark, when every body being much fatigued, a party was left to search for them again in the morning, and the rest repaired on board. In the morning, we renewed our labours without success, and with great reason began to feel seriously alarmed for the safety of our shipmates. There was no water on the island, and the preceding day had been so extremely warm, that we feared the poor fellows would soon perish, if they had not already. Our search, too, was attended with considerable danger. Wandering about in distant parts of the island, we sometimes, in clambering over rocks and mountains, changed our course without being sensible of it, and would find ourselves pursuing our way in a different direction from what we supposed. In the afternoon, when our strength and patience were quite exhausted, and our parties returning for the night, the lost men suddenly appeared on the beach, close to the vessel. They were pale and emaciated, with scarcely strength to move one foot before the other. Their clothes were in tatters, and their shoes worn off their feet, which were very much crippled with their long journey over the sharp cinders. It appeared from the story of these men, that they had several times been on the side of the island where we were anchored, but upon an eminence that overlooked the vessel, and thinking themselves on the other side, recrossed; when, to their astonishment, seeing nothing of her, they would retrace their steps; and in this manner, were wandering about for many hours, almost despairing at last of finding relief. While they were in this wretched situation, they several times quenched their thirst by killing turtle that came in their way, and drinking from the reservoir with which nature has supplied this singular animal. I have since been told by a seaman, that he deserted from a whale ship at these islands, accompanied by a number of others, and that for weeks, they had no other water than what they obtained by breaking open the turtles and drinking of the water they found in them. It is contained in a pouch that resembles a bladder, and is immediately connected with the stomach. It is large in proportion to the size of the animal, and some of them will hold two or three gallons. It surprised us to see the tameness of the birds. They would scarcely fly from us when we approached them within a few feet, and in many instances we could pick them up with our hands. The gannet, generally of a clear white, and as large as a goose, we could catch with great ease; and the albatrosses, some grey and some yellow, which were much larger than any bird we have in the United States, would but rarely rise upon the wing to escape us. They ran very fast, and would sometimes give us a chase of one or two hundred yards. A bird, the plumage and form of which differed in no