The loquacious captain, an uncommon quality in a Yankee, could not conceal his astonishment at encountering an Austrian man-of-war in such a latitude in mid-ocean, and adverted to this unexpected phenomenon. Captain Pierce further complained bitterly of the weather, and said that, as long as he had sailed the Indian Ocean, he had never at this season experienced such tempestuous weather as during the last week; which was further confirmed by several other whalers, regular visitors to these waters. Respecting Amsterdam, Captain Pierce, unfortunately, could give us but very little information. He had never set foot on the island, nor did he know whether it was accessible at all. But he spoke highly of the availability of the coasts for valuable fish. Nowhere in the Indian Ocean, the Captain remarked, was there such an abundance of fish of all descriptions as at the Southernmost point of this little-known island. Consequently most whalers, on their course Southwards, approach this island, and send out boats to bring in supplies of fish suitable for the table. Usually the boat is filled in a few hours with delicious food caught with the rod and line, when the fish are forthwith salted, in sufficient quantities to supply the crew for several weeks.
Is Amsterdam really a sister-island of St. Paul? Is it, too, of volcanic origin, upheaved by the same subterranean energy, and does it still show similar traces of long-continued activity? These questions pressed on us for solution all the more vividly as we neared this inaccessible island, when we recalled to mind the mysterious phenomena which D'Entrecasteaux had observed here in March, 1792, and which have remained unexplained to this day.[72] The French Expedition saw, it is true, clouds of smoke emerging alternately from a subterranean opening close to the shore, but without being able to satisfy themselves whether the vegetation had been set on fire by the hand of man or by volcanic action, the wind which blew direct from the island making it impossible to land, unless one was prepared to run the risk of being suffocated by the rolling masses of smoke. There was, therefore, to be solved, at Amsterdam, the mystery as to whether the pillars of smoke, which were observed by the naturalists of the French Expedition of 1792, issuing from the soil adjoining the sea, were produced by an actual eruption, or were caused by subterranean fires in activity.[73]
[72] La Billardière, Rélation du voyage à la recherche de la Peyrouse, fait par ordre de l'Assemblée Constituante pendant les années 1791-94, Paris, 1800. (Vol. I., pp. 112, 113.)
[73] Vide Alexander v. Humboldt's "Kosmos," Vol. IV., pp. 412 and 585; also Physical and Geognostic Remarks, by the same author, prefixed to this volume.
About 11 a. m., the two jolly-boats of the Novara were lowered to look for a landing-place on Amsterdam, while the frigate stood off and on, under easy sail, at an offing of five or six miles. Our whaling informant had told us the most abundant fishing-station was at the south point of the island, while the best place for disembarking was on the N.W. shore. As, however, upon consideration, it was deemed advisable, looking to the probability of a N.E. gale springing up, to get to windward of the ship, so as to be able to fetch her more speedily on our return, the S.E. side was selected, and our course laid for it accordingly. Along the acclivities of the coast pyramids of loose stones were visible, resembling those on St. Paul, but more numerous and of larger dimensions, the entire island seeming altogether on a much larger scale, and more lofty. On the West side we observed rocky precipices of from 1000 to 2000 feet in height, fissured with deep clefts and rents, whereas on the South and S.E., these presented a more gradual slope.
For above an hour we steered along the shore, which rose sheer out of the water, without being able to detect a single point at which it was at all practicable to disembark, so as to scramble up to the high ground. The entire Eastern side is hemmed around with steep abrupt precipices of 150 to 200 feet high, not unlike skilfully-erected bastions, and clothed with long thick grass.
As we drew near, we could plainly discern in the water-courses that descend upon the upper slope—radiating, as it were, from all sides of the highest peak, which was enveloped in clouds—numerous streams of water, each pouring through a rift like a thread of silver, after which, precipitating itself over the steep precipices on the shore, it washed like a small torrent over terraces and banks of lava, till it was lost in the sea. If these streams are swollen by the heavy rain in winter, they may form waterfalls, as mentioned by early navigators, which must impart a far less pleasing character to the landscape. Two small patches of dazzling white, like fresh fallen snow, which were visible high above the slope, we could not make out with the utmost power of our glasses. The green colour which enveloped the entire island seemed to indicate the existence of grass vegetation resembling that of St. Paul.
At last, when we had got within two cables' length of the shore, we encountered enormous green flakes of floating sea-weed, which, becoming entangled with the rudder, made further progress possible only by dint of most strenuous exertions. This proved to be the same gigantic sea-tangle of the Southern hemispheres (Macrocystis Pyrifera), which likewise constitutes a barrier of fucus on the East side of St. Paul. The sea-calves mentioned by older describers were nowhere to be seen; but on the other hand we had an opportunity of satisfying ourselves as to the immense abundance of fish which frequent the coast of the island in a truly astonishing degree, although the American whaler had prepared us by his remarks. From bow and stern of the boat hooks and lines were hung out, and several of the crew were at once kept busy hauling in the lines, at the end of each of which there usually struggled a fish of some two or three feet long. These were chiefly umber fish, which are also very plentiful about St. Paul, where, from their delicacy, they formed a favourite dish at our otherwise very frugal repasts.
We had now got so near, that we could distinctly perceive grass and the stems of ferns growing among the clefts of the rocks. However, although there was a dead calm, and the sea outside was as smooth as glass, the long ground-swell of the ocean, with its broad flat billows, caused such a heavy surf on the rock-bound stony beach, that the attempt to pass it was not to be thought of. The further we advanced along the coast in a northernly direction, the more distant we got from the ship, and unluckily in an equal degree our hopes were disappointed of finding a spot at which we could land, and scramble from the strand up the steep bank to the level ground above. The south-easternmost point, which at a distance presented the appearance of a low headland jutting out into the sea, behind which we had hoped to find a good landing-place, now that we had got close to it, proved to be a small detached rock; while the shore, as far as the eye could reach, rose like a wall to a height of from 150 to 200 feet. There now hove in sight five whalers, who seemed hunting that most valuable of all the inhabitants of the deep, of the spots frequented by which Maury's renowned Whale Charts have lately supplied so interesting and useful a code of instruction. These charts, which are based on a vast number of observations, of the tracts of ocean and seasons of the year at which whales are most frequently seen, will at the same time greatly tend to a solution of the question as to the migration of these enormous mammals; for it has never yet been settled, whether these animals flee from the pursuit of man to remote seas, thus continually constraining their pursuers to seek their prey in new waters, or whether, (as is the most prevalent opinion), they are always entirely extirpated from one locality, and accordingly are only to be met with in any numbers in some different area, in which man has as yet only rarely, if ever, disturbed them.[74]
[74] Some very valuable and detailed particulars of the Whale fishery are to be found in Maury's incomparable work, "The Physical Geography of the Ocean," and in Dr. Hartwigs' "Popular Treatise on Animated Nature in the Ocean. (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1855.)"