ny water snakes were seen here, swimming about on the surface; and one
of two chasing each other and playing about the ship was shot by Captain
Stanley from his cabin window, and brought on board. It appeared to be of
the genus Hypotrophis, and measured 37 1/2 inches in length; it had a
pair of minute poison fangs on each side of the upper jaw; the colour was
a dirty greenish with numerous pale narrow bands.

THE CALVADOS GROUP.

July 16th.

The pinnace having returned yesterday and reported a clear passage for
the ship to the westward close inshore, we got underweigh and returned on
the same line by which we had come out, anchoring for the night in 19
fathoms water, under Observation Reef 2. Next day we rounded Brierly
Island from the eastward, passed between it and Joannet Island, and after
running a few miles further to the westward, anchored in 30 fathoms--15
miles West-North-West from Brierly Island, and two miles from the nearest
of the Calvados Group. In passing Brierly Island the place appeared to be
deserted. We saw a single canoe hauled up on the beach, but no natives.

On July 18th, after standing to the westward 32 miles, we hauled out
south, and anchored in 22 fathoms, about eight miles from the nearest of
the Calvados. We remained at this anchorage for the next three days.

INHABITANTS OF THE CALVADOS GROUP.

One day we were visited by a canoe from a neighbouring island, and on the
following morning two more canoes came off. The people in one canoe kept
at a safe distance, but those in the other came alongside, and after
exhausting their stock of yams and other articles of barter, went off to
their more cautious companions, and speedily returned to us with a fresh
supply. The canoe was an old patched-up affair, and while one of the
natives was standing up with a foot on each gunwale, a previous fracture
in the bow, united only by pitch, gave way, and a piece of the side, four
feet long, came out, allowing the water to rush in. The canoe would
speedily have been swamped, had not the author of the mischief held on
the piece in his hand, while some of the others bailed away as rapidly as
possible, and the remainder paddled off with desperation, shouting loudly
to the people in the second canoe for help. But their friends seemed as
much frightened as themselves, not knowing the nature of the accident,
and probably supposing that we had been roughly treating their companions
they made sail for the shore, a