The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-03 00:00:00

Her MAJESTY'S SHIP "CHALLENGER."

The following extracts are from a very interesting sketch
In The Tintee, descriptive of some of the people and places
seen during the voyage of discovery by the Challenger, from
a Correspondent, writing from Yokohama, under date April
11:
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We left Zamboangan on the sth of February, and
spent the following day swinging ship in the strait
between Mindanao and Basilan to ascertain the effect
of the iron in the ship on the horizontal and vertical
deviations of the compass after our Northern trip. The
view of both islands from the strait was extremely bean-
tiful from the luxuriance of the vegetation, which filled
up the gullies and mantled over every basalt ridge and
peak up to the very summit. This part of the coast of
lqindanao is bold and rugged, but there are a good
many patches of cultivation, the pale green cane-brakes
showing out among the dark foliage. Basilan is
flatter and not so picturesque. and seems to be still
entirely covered with virgin forest. On the 9th
we were off Cape Sarangan, the south-east point of
Mindanao, and in view of the Sarangani Islands is
Ba.lat, the finest of these, with a fine volcanic cone
thickly wooded to the top. On the following day the
Meangis Islands and the Island of Tulur were seen
and we put down th.e trawl in 500 fathoms, almost mid-
,
warbetween them. This was a very successful haul.
Besides a number of other things of considerable
interest, we got numerous specimens of three, if not
four, species of encrimites, some of them with stems two
or three feet high and cups as handsome as those of the
West Indian forms. While we were trawling a large
canoe, flying the Dutch flag, came off from one of
the Meangis Islands, full of natives— men and boys—
anxious to exchange parrots and mats for tobacco and
biscuit. The men had some what more of the Malay about
them that the " Moros " of the Philippines, whom
they otherwise resembled; they did not, however, un-
derstand the ordinary Malay language. They were
decently clad in trousers and jackets, and were very
friendly and civil. As in most of these islands, several
of them were affected with a very disagreeable-looking
skin disease. It was our intention at this time to take
our course as straight as possible to the supposed
position of Greenwich Island, a little to the south- ,
ward and in longitude 155 degrees E., and from that
point to turn • northwards through the Caroline and
Ladrone groups to Japan. The wind fell very light
and uncertain, however, and we found that a strong
current from the north was setting us down towards
the coast of New Guinea. We could not spare suffi-
cient coal to keep our course, as we required nearly the
whole of our stock for dredging and sounding up to
Japan, the nearest place where we had any chance of
getting supplies; and as many of us were extremely
anxious to have a glimpse of the mainland of New
Guinea, which we had now nearly circumnavigated,
Captain Thomson determined, if we were driven by
the current within a hundred miles or so, to run into
Humboldt Bay, and afterwards to attempt to land at
the Admiralty Islands, discovered by Schonten in
1616, visited by Cartaret in 1792, and partly surveyed
by D'Entrecasteau in 1792. As none of these navigators
appear to have been able to effect a landing, we were
totally ignorant of the character of the islands or of
thei inhabitants.
On the 16th we were still being
.carried to the south-
ward by the current, and, having sounded in the
morning in 1,675 fathoms, we steered to the position
of "Carteret Reef" on the Admiralty Chart. We
again sounded, and found 2,000 fathoms, so that
Carteret Reef does not exist, at all events in its
assigned plat*. k it c4rfarinive been. confotinded '
"Helen's Reef," set down in the Chart about 125
Miles to the westward. The trawl at this station
gave us some interesting crustaceans and star-
fishes. On the 21st of February, still drifting