latitude nine degrees fifty-four minutes thirty seconds; west longitude, one hundred and fifty degrees eighteen seconds. Previous to taking our departure from the coast of Peru, the commander of the station had furnished us with a long list of islands, said to have been recently discovered by whalers, and we were now in the vicinity of two of them, one of which was laid down in south latitude eight degrees forty minutes; and west longitude one hundred and fifty-nine degrees fifty minutes. The other, in south latitude, six degrees forty-two minutes; went longitude one hundred and sixty-six degrees ten minutes. After our departure from Caroline Island, we steered for the supposed new discovery, that was nearest to us, being that in latitude eight degrees forty seconds; and, having cruised two days in the vicinity, bore away, under a full conviction that it did not exist, or had been laid down incorrectly. In our search for the other island, we were equally unsuccessful; and after running down a degree or two of longitude, in its parallel of latitude, continued on to the southward and westward, shaping our course for the Duke of Clarence Island. Whilst we were looking for these new discoveries, we were frequently deceived by the same false appearance of land, that I have noticed soon after our departure from the Marquesas, and several times we saw land-birds[8] flying about the vessel. At four, A.M., on the 29th of October, we discovered the Duke of Clarence Island ahead, twelve miles from us. At day-light, the N.W. end was full in sight, and on each side of it, apparently at a great distance, the tops of the trees could but just be seen through the haze of the morning, looking as though they rose from the ocean. As we approached nearer, a great many islets rose to view, connected with each other by a chain of coral reefs. In sailing round them, we discovered that they formed a polygon, the sides of which were narrow strips of land and coral reefs, comprehending within them a lake of many miles in circumference. When we first got close in with the island, this lake, intervening between us and the most distant islets that rose at the utmost limit of our vision, almost persuaded us, for a time, that it was an extensive group, instead of one little island that looked like a speck upon the general chart. The lake was everywhere protected against the ocean, and so smooth, that not an undulation could be seen upon its surface. The wind was light, the sea smooth,--the air had the mildness and elasticity of a spring morning; and these deep green spots, upon the wide waste of ocean, were truly beautiful. The islets were low, rising but a few feet above the water, and all covered with a thick growth of cocoa-nut trees. When we run down within a few miles of the shore to the westward, where, near the beach, were a few huts, two canoes put off, and pulled for us with great rapidity, and shortly afterwards not less than twenty were in sight.