Viewing page 2 of 41

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

2

We arrived at our destination, Aeolinan Bay, South Seymour, about 4:30, April 8th. A tide gauge was installed the first evening, and the tents [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] erected at the same time for the observers. The next several days were given over to erecting signals for the triangulation survey of North and South Seymour. Samples of several very interesting fossil deposits were brought back to the MALLARD. These are now in transit to the Museum.
     
In furtherance of my desire to see more of Conway Bay, which we believed to be one of the best centrally located harbors and so [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] ^[[perhaps a]] favorable site for the establishment of the proposed laboratory, Captain Picking transferred me to the S-46, commanded by Captain Lynch. We steamed over to Conway Bay on the morning of April [[strikethrough]] 21 [[/strikethrough]] 12th and spent the next four days there. Several attempts were made to work our way inland, in the hope of establishing contact with an old, abandoned plantation high up on the northwestern slope of the island, because a spring is supposed to exist there along with a stand of banana, orange, and lemon trees. We found it impossible to get through to the higher levels because of the density of the brush and the exceedingly rough terrain. The shore party needed no persuasion to unqualifiedly accept Gifford Pinchot's description of the island as "inaccessible Indefatigable". There is a nice landing beach at Conway Bay, but, except for on sand dune [[strikethrough]] nearby [[/strikethrough]], the land near by is generally low and densely brush covered.
     
As we learned from various residents in the Islands, the present rainy season has proved to be one of the wettest for many years. This was the report of the residents of Wreck Bay, Academy Bay, and Villamil, on south Albemarle, which we visited before leaving the Islands. The Wittmer family, on Charles Island, voiced a similar comment to the captains of the submarines who visited them during our sojourn at South Seymour. They said that it was the wettest season that they had seen in the Islands since their arrival in 1932. As a result, we found several fairly large pools of fresh water a few hundred yards back from the shore line at Conway Bay. Similarly, on South Seymour Island, three different groups of intermittent fresh water ponds were found, but these ponds do not persist through the dry season, as I know from personal experience.
     
The Conway Bay party returned to the base at South Seymour on the afternoon of April 16th. The next day the whole expedition left for James Island, where we anchored in the early afternoon. Here, too, was much evidence of a very wet rainy season. Barring ^[[?]] unweathered rock [[strikethrough]] as [[/strikethrough]] ^[[and]] lava flows [[strikethrough]] as it was when Darwin was here, [[/strikethrough]] the whole island was completely green. All of my other visits had been during the drier months, and so, on this occasion, I saw for the first time the waterfall that has been reported in a gully to the eastward of James Bay. The Bay anchorage is fairly open and has at times a heavy surf on the beach. Except [[strikethrough]] for [[/strikethrough]] that it lacks a permanent water supply, the land hereabouts offers some very fine building sites.