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BONIN, or ARZOBISPO ISLANDS, a group of islands in the North Pacific, lying about N. by E., extending from 27° 44'N. lat., seen as far to the southward as 26° 30', and probably running much farther in that direction. In longitude the known portion is comprised between 143° and 144° E. long. The only account of them is from the visit of the Blossom in 1827; and Captain Beechey observes that they correspond so well with the description of a group called Yslas del Arzobispo in a work published many years ago at Manilla (Navigacion Especulativa y Pratica), as to leave no doubt of their being the same. They had been expunged from the chart all but three, called Los Volcanos, as Gore, Perouse, and Kruzenstern had passed to the N. and S. without seeing any other than these; but in 1823 they reappeared in Arrowsmith's map. They consist of three distinct groups: the northern, called Parry's Group, are mostly small islands and rocks. The central, called Baily's Group, consists of larger islands, separated from each other by narrow and deep channels. In the southern group the islands appear to be still larger and higher, but of this portion little is known, as Captain Beechey had not time to examine them. It appears that in 1823 a whale-ship commanded by Mr. Coffin anchored among this southern group, and that Mr. C. gave his name to the port, and was the first who furnished any certain information concerning this archipelago. The islands are of volcanic formation, and smoke is seen to issue from some of them: they are steep and high, and wooded to the shores. The coasts are steep and craggy: in many places basaltic columns of a grey or greenish hue appear, resembling the Giant's Causeway in miniature; olivine, hornblende, and chalcedony are found. The islands are surrounded with sharp rugged rocks, and often with coral reefs: the water around them is very deep. They are quite uninhabited, but at the time of the Blossom's visit two of the crew of a whaler which had been wrecked in Port Lloyd were living on one of the islands, and had got a piece of ground under cultivation. The rest of the crew had been taken off by another whaler, but these two preferred remaining. The islands abound in the cabbage and fan palms, the former of which is an excellent vegetable, areca, pandanus, tamanu of Otaheite, and various other trees: the sea also contains abundance of turtle, ray, eels, cray-fish, and a great variety of others, of the most beautiful colours. Of birds, there are brown herons, plover, rails, snipe, wood-pigeons, crows, and small birds; also a species of vampire bat, some of which measured three feet across the extended wings, with a body eight or nine inches in length. No quadrupeds were seen. The islands are subject to earthquakes, and in winter to violent storms, in one of which (January, 1826) the water rose twelve feet in Port Lloyd. The currents about the islands run very strong, and principally to the northward. The name Bonin, by which they are known on our maps, is derived from Japanese accounts of a group called Bon-in Sima; but setting aside the geographical inaccuracy of the position there assigned them, it appears from the description given by M. Abel Remusat, in the Journal des Savans, September, 1817, that these cannot be the same. They appear to abound in good harbours, and are now frequently visited by whalers, who go to them for turtle, fish, and the cabbage palm. (Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Straits.) . . . .
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Notes.
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Source.
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
This transcription was made a volume at the Hathi Trust.
Last updated by Tom Tyler, Denver, CO, USA, Oct 5 2022.
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