purpose of searching
for them, and it was supposed that one or two others which had come up to
lay escaped detection from the darkness of the night.

CLAREMONT GROUP.

On August 31st, we removed to an anchorage under Number 5 of the
Claremont group, and remained there during the following day. The island
is about two-thirds of a mile in circumference, low and sandy, with a
large reef extending to windward. The island is thinly covered with
coarse grass and straggling bushes, with one large thicket containing a
few trees, of which the tallest is a solitary Mimusops. We found quail
here in great plenty, and they afforded good sport to a First of
September shooting party, provided with a setter. At length the poor
quail had their quarters so thoroughly beaten up, that several, in
attempting to escape from the island, were observed to fall into the
water from sheer exhaustion. Nor did the birds receive all the benefit of
the shot, for Captain Stanley, while observing with the theodolite,
became unwittingly a target for a juvenile shooter; but, fortunately, no
damage was done. Some turtles were seen at night, but they were too wary
to be taken. I found several nests with eggs, by probing in all the
likely places near their tracks with my ramrod; in passing through an
egg, the end of the rod becomes smeared with the contents, and comes up
with a little sand adhering to it, directing one where to dig.

Number 6 of the Claremont group was next visited. This, which is only a
quarter of a mile in length, is situated on the lee side of an extensive
reef. It is quite low, being composed of heaped-up fragments of shells
and coral, overrun with a suffruticose Sida, and stunted bushes of
Clerodendrum and Premna, with a glossy-leaved euphorbiaceous plant
occasionally forming small thickets. Seafowl and waders were very
numerous, but the breeding season was over. Landrail existed in such
great numbers that upwards of fifty were shot.

I cannot see the propriety of considering the sandbank, marked Number 7,
as a member of the Claremont group, as, at high-water, it is a mere strip
of sand 200 yards in length, with a few plants of Salsola on the highest
part.

NIGHT ISLAND.

On September 8th, we anchored to the westward of the north end of Night
Island, a mile off shore, and remained there for the two succeeding days.
This island is two miles in length, and half a mile in breadth,
surrounded by a narrow reef of dead coral and mud. W