On 20th November, about 6 A.M., the officers and naturalists, together with a portion of the crew, 32 in all, left the frigate with a large quantity of instruments, scientific apparatus, and baggage. This little expedition was supplied with provisions and water for six days, there being no springs of fresh water on the island, the frequenters of which are compelled to depend for their whole supply of drinking-water, partly on the rain-fall, partly during long-continued dry seasons on the water of one of the hot brackish springs which occur on the north side of the lower circuit of the crater. Long accustomed to these fluids and to their peculiar taste, the inhabitants feel no evil results from their employment, which very probably would not be the case with those persons who visit the island for the first time, and whose arduous exertions necessitate their drinking daily large quantities of water.
On a small eminence, about 150 feet high, above the fisherman's huts on the north side of the crater-basin, a small wooden cottage was erected for the protection of the astronomers; and at a distance of about 40 feet, a second for the magnetic instruments, both of which, with their contents, were entrusted to Lieutenant Robert Müller. Lieutenants Batlogg and Eugen Kronowetter, were respectively entrusted with the observations by theodolite, and with the surveying board. To the last-mentioned gentleman were also confided the observations with the meteorological instruments, the researches with the tide-gauge, the instruments for measuring the velocity of currents, as also the soundings in the basin, and on either side of the bar,--to assist him in the execution of which Cadet Count Borelli and Head Quartermaster Cian were detached. We quartered ourselves as well as we could in the wretched filthy huts which, in summer, serve the fishermen from St. Denis as a shelter. In one of these hung several pictures--one representing Napoleon I. riding the inevitable white horse, the majority consisting of female portraits and scenes of Parisian life, so that the whole place had quite a Frenchified appearance.
Hardly had the instruments, apparatus, men, and baggage been placed under shelter, when once more a strong north wind came on, which, during the night between the 20th and 21st, increased to such a height, that it blew down the two huts intended for the observations, which had not been quite finished, and in which, fortunately, the instruments had not yet been placed--exposing the work already begun to very considerable interruption.