I Had No Telescope With Me, Nor Any Instrument
At Hand, But I Estimated The Length Of The Tail At About 20°, And
The Width, Towards The Extremity, About 4° Or 5°.
The whole of the next day we were obliged to stop near the
village of Tidore, owing to a strong wind right 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, but
returned home without a single bird. At sunset, the wind having
dropped, we quitted Tidore, and reached the next island, March,
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 edge, 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 recently 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 l778. 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 truncated jagged
summit and vast gloomy crater valley which at this time
distinguished it.
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