part of which referring to the Marianas I have translated above. He says there, that being anchored off Assumption, he noted the Mangs 28° W. This is evidently a mistake. What M. Peyrouse did mean was the Urraccas, which are clearly seen from Assumption, and which I saw when I was passing the anchorage of the French Admiral. The bearing itself is also imperfect and confusing. It is stated (see Findlay's Pacific Directory,) that in his journal M. Peyrouse took the bearings of a group of islands, S.S. W. about, and that this bearing is wrong; being in fact an error in the manuscript of the journal, which should have been N.N.W. instead of S.S.W. So it is stated in Findlay's Directory, and this is one of his reasons for introducing the translation of the paragraph relating to it. But he has also done something curious. This being a doubtful point he has taken for granted that the islands seen by the unfortunate Admiral must exist; and should be others besides the Urraccas, in spite of his saying distinctly that he never saw these. In consequence of this, some charts have placed them N.N.W. of Assumption, between this island and the Urraccas, first laying down Assumption, then the Monjas, then the Urraccas. The Spanish chart of 1862 has adopted this course. Others again place them S.S.W. of Assumption, as the French chart does of M. Duperry. The English chart of the Admiralty (sheet five of the Pacific) does still more ? This chart places them S.S.W. of Assumption with the name of the Mangs; but it also places the Urraccas N.N.W. of Assumption, calling them also Urraccas or Mangs. So that it really places them in two positions, one S.S.W. and the other N.N. W. of Assumption. And as it has long been doubtful whether this group of the Mangs are or are not the Urraccas, the English chart gives to these groups both the names. We must acknowledge that even here there is an apparent eccentricity of judgment of nautical matters common among the English. Laid down in the chart on the authority of M. la Peyrouse, no one that I know of, excepting M. da Freycinet has said that he really saw the Mangs. According to Findlay, the commander of the Uranie says in the account of his voyage, that he saw these isles from the masthead of his corvette in showery weather, and the chart of M. Duperrey which was on board the Uranie places them as above said S.S.W. of Assumption. I have been looking for the Mangs with the utmost vigilance in a steam-vessel, and in the clearest of weather, but without finding them. If they were S.S.W. of Assumption I have been by the side of them on two occasions; and if they are N.N.W. of it I have likewise run over them twice, on the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of January. In fact, there are no such islands, nor have they ever had any existence either where they were supposed to be, or within thirty miles of it! I am thoroughly satisfied that they may be safely erased from the charts, and that no ship that ever navigates the Marianas will ever find them. This is not to assert that such islands have gone to the bottom like an old worm-eaten ship fallen to pieces, nor that they were clouds that have been seen instead of islands. The Mangs do not and never did exist, for no other reason than they and the Urraccas are one and the same. In the possibility of a vessel being lost for want of a notice, notwithstanding a danger is of doubtful existence, the extreme recourse has been adopted of loading the charts with false information on the supposition that it will do no more than increase the vigilance of looking out for it. But these same false enterings become afterwards the source of doubt and confusion to the navigator, who has not always perception enough to see what is right and what is wrong, and it establishes a new source of difficulty for hydrographers,* for some give as certain for what is doubtful, and others give as doubtful for what is certain. The present condition of navigation does not requiree such a course of proceeding with charts, and I should say it ought not to be permitted. Such a pitiful recourse would keep the charts of the whole world in a continual state of correction, and now the chart of the Marianas archipelago may undergo the same process. Pajaros Island.-is the northern extreme island of the archipelago. I know of no description nor any notice of this island. Findlay's Directory merely gives its name, and of course every other does the same according to Horsburgh, King, &c. All the charts represent it as if it were a group of four or five rocks. I was under the impression that it was a rock with two or three smaller ones about it, and considering myself ten or twelve miles from it on the 8th of January, and the weather being thick and stormy, I stopped the engine and lay to for daylight, a proceeding from which I derived comfort, although I do not often do so at sea. But I was completely deceived. Pajaros is really an island. The Pajaros Farallon, which is worthy the name of an island, (for there are others in the Marianas of the same size and even less that are called islands,) is a high island about one and a half mile from North to South, and two miles from East to West. According to estimation the height of it is about 1,200 or 1,300 feet, which height is about one seventh of the base. It is a mere conical mountain volcano, now in action. We saw five or six columns of smoke, very black, on the S.W. part of the mountain, in which part there seems to be a crater. Three sides of its coast that face the South. East, and North, are precipitous and bold, without any off lying dangers. There was a good deal of sea when I saw it, and we could see no break but that at From my own observation of many years in the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty, no one was fonder of this method of preserving dangers on the principle mentioned, than the late hydrographer to the Admiralty, Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort.-ED. the foot of the rocks. On the S.E. side of it, there is a large rock off the shore, but counected with it. And near it to the southward are three or four other rocks, not so large, one of which, that looks like a tower, is very remarkable. Lastly, to the S.W. of the island there is another rock very close to it, that is much like the other on the S.E. side of it. The island is tolerably steep on all sides except on the West, where the slope of the mountain is not so abrupt. There is no danger on its western side either, nor any break, except on the shore of the island. I think I may assert that the whole of the shore is quite clean, and that it may be approached on all sides within a mile. In our craft we were on the East, North, and West sides of it, from one to two miles off, without seeing any danger; and notwithstanding the swell of the sea (which was a good deal) there was no sign of any danger. I have not been able to ascertain if there be any anchoring ground off it, as I was enabled only to run round it; but if there be it would be on its South or S. W. coast. On this part there are some trees on the island and also vegetation; but all the rest is as arid and bare as Assumption. Like the Urraccas, the isle of Pajaros, far from being a rock to be avoided in navigation, is an excellent point of recognition for vessels; being visible from a great distance, and may be approached safely by any class of them. We here conclude our translation of this interesting paper of Don Eugenio Sanchez y Zayas, the commander of the Spanish ship of war Narvaez, commenced in our last year's volume (p. 363) and continued in consecutive numbers to the present. To this officer belongs the credit of thoroughly rectifying the hydrography of the Marianas, which evidently had remained ever since their discovery in a very unsatisfactory state, but which islands, with the assistance of the chart accompanying the original of this memoir, may now be navigated with safety and certainty. Both the Admiralty Chart and Directions by Staff Commander King may profit largely by this work of the Spanish officer, who has here alluded to their inaccuracies.-ED. ON THE VARIATIONS OF THE READING OF THE BAROMETER AND THE WEATHER-in the Months of September, October, and November, 1865.-By James Glashier, Esq.. F.R.S. The variations in the readings of the barometer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in the period from September 12th to November 30th, making altogether eighty days, are shown in the accompanying diagram and table, together with the general directions of the wind on every day, as determined from the records of Osler's Self-Registering Anemometer, and the number of miles of horizontal movement of the air, as self-registerd by the use of Robinson's Anemometer. During the latter part of this period there have been successive |