Pearl-shell is collected on the reefs, but not as yet in sufficient quantities to establish a lucrative industry. In this respect the island is not so fortunate as Alphonse, for there are no sheltered rock-pools in which the shell can be collected by swimming-divers without danger from the sharks; the sea everywhere flowing in over the outer edge of the broad fringing reef, and the great reef to the southward only drying in patches at low tide.
Small water-worn fragments of precious coral (C. rubrum) are from time to time picked up on the reef, but we could not glean any information as to its precise habitat. We met with none in our dredgings, which ranged up to a depth of twenty-two fathoms. It probably inhabits the deeper water on the outer slope of the bank. Madame Hoyaeux, who was most kind and hospitable, presented me with some fragments which had been picked up on the reef, and which resembled the Corallium rubrum of the Mediterranean.
There are many wells on the island, but in all the water has a saline taste. It is serviceable enough for washing and cooking purposes; but for drinking, the inhabitants rely upon the rainwater which they collect.
On the forenoon of the 28th of April we anchored about a mile and a half to the westward of three small islets, which rest on the southern extremity of the Providence Reef. I then accompanied the captain on a boat-trip to the islets, visiting the two which lay nearest. The most northerly of these we found to be a low and almost barren sand-cay, crescentic in outline, about two hundred yards in greatest length, and thirty yards in width. Near the eastern extremity were two rude fishing-huts which seemed to have been recently inhabited. They contained a turtle-spear and some other fishing appliances, a hatchet, a bag of salt, a tinderbox, and some other small bags which were closed up, and which a delicate regard for the sacred rights of private property deterred us from examining. A few pearl-shells of the species peculiar to these islands lay in a heap near one of the huts. I appropriated, without any scruple, some specimens of these, leaving, however, in exchange, a big lump of tobacco, which I deposited in one of the bags hanging from the rafters of the hut.
Close to the concave margin of the islet was a small turtle-pond, composed of stakes driven vertically into the soft sand, and lashed together so as to form a circular enclosure through which the shallow water flowed freely at all times of the tide. It contained six large turtle.
The only plants growing on the islet were a very young cocoa-nut, scarcely six inches high, and a weed, without flowers, somewhat resembling a Mesembryanthemum, and evidently growing wild. The latter may, I think, be considered to be the only indigenous plant on the islet. In strolling over the piled-up sand and broken coral, of which the surface of the islet was composed, I came across three fruits of the widely-distributed Barringtonia speciosa, which had evidently drifted on to the beach, and had then been blown up above tide mark.
We subsequently visited a second islet which lay about a mile to the westward of the above, with which it was connected by a shallow reef, probably laid bare at low tide. This second islet proved to be utterly devoid of vegetation, and showed no signs of having ever been inhabited. Strewn over its surface were great quantities of dead shells, among which I saw examples of the genera Harpa, Dolium, Bulla, Cypræa, Littorina, Voluta, Conus, etc. From here we obtained a good view of the third islet, and could see on it two large huts and several clumps of bushes, but nothing in the shape of a human being. (One of our boats visited this islet on the following day and reported that the huts were uninhabited, although showing signs of having recently been in use.) There were three plants; viz., the Veloutier Tabac (Tournefortia argentea), the Bois d'Aimanthe (Suriana maritima), a bush with lanceolate woody leaves, and a small herbaceous plant. After a good deal of groping and wading about the shores of the islet, we returned at about 5 p.m. to the place where we had left our boat, but found, to our dismay, that the tide had fallen so low since we had landed, that the boat was now hard and fast on the bare reef, and after repeated efforts to drag it over to the reef-edge, a distance of nearly half a mile, we were obliged to make up our minds to wait for the rising tide. As we were unfortunately without any provisions, our position was not the most agreeable, especially as the boat was not floated off till near midnight.
On the morning of the 1st of May we weighed anchor and steamed over to the island of St. Pierre, which lies about ten miles to the south-west of our last position. We spent some hours sounding off the island in deep water, and as it was reported that there was no safe anchorage, the captain did not attempt to land. Seen from a distance of about half a mile—the nearest we approached to it—St. Pierre appeared to be of a very different character from the islands recently visited. It was somewhat circular in outline, and was covered by a dense growth of scrubby bushes, above which appeared the crowns of three or four isolated palm trees. The mean level of its surface was about thirty feet above the water, so that it was three or four times as high as Providence, or the Amirante Islands. It presented all round a precipitous rock-bound coast worn into jagged pinnacles above, and undermined below by the wear and tear of the heavy ocean swell, which thundered against it and testified to its eroding power by the jets of spray which we saw shot upwards from blowholes through the upper surface of the rock.
On the 3rd of May we anchored off Du Lise Island, the most northern of the three islets which compose the Glorioso Group. These islets lie about two hundred and seventy miles to the south-west of Providence Island, and one hundred and twenty miles in a west-by-north direction from the northern extremity of Madagascar.