AMSTERDAM ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 1033, 16 September 1871, Page 21

AMSTERDAM ISLAND.

A late Australian telegram mentioned that fires had been seen on Amsterdam Island by those on board the ship Punjaub. It is now thought exceedingly probable that these tires were kindled by the shipwrecked crew and passengers of the troop ship Megaera, whose loss on St, Paul's Island, only a few miles off, was mentioned in the telegrams by the Suez mail. The particulars as yet received regarding this disaster are very vague, though it is stated that all on Board were saved, and have been forwarded to Sydney. St. Paul's Island is situated about two-thirds of the way from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Leuwin, and is a rocky islet 9 miles long and from 4to 5 miles broad. It is very difficult of access, and is situated in a sea generally tempestuous. On the eastern side of the island, however, there is a good anchorage in a lagoon formed by an ancient crater, the whole island being merely the summit of an extinct submarine volcano. Fish and seals abound, but the vegetation on the island consists only of coarse grass and stunted scrub. Some fifteen years ago there was a fishing settlement on the island, conducted by a Frenchman and some Nossibe blacks, who sold their fish at Bourbon or Port Louis, but we do not know whether it is still in existence. The island also contains hot springs. Amsterdam Island, which is variously stated as 20 and 60 miles distant from St. Paul's, is rather smaller than the latter island, and is of a precisely similar character. It is now virtually two islands, as the sea has broken through, the walls of the crater in its centre and flows through from one end to the other. It is in this basin or channel alone that a landing can be effected, the shores of the island elsewhere being walls of lava. The traces of volcanic action are more marked and apparently more recent here than at St. Paul's.