300 
many degrees lower than that of the surrounding atmosphere. 
These vessels are made very thin, and without any glazing. 
They are accordingly so porous, that when filled with water, 
it transudes in sufficient quantity to keep the surface con- 
stantly wet; and when thus exposed to a current of air, the 
evaporation from the outside maintains the contents of the 
vessel in a state of refreshing coolness. 
* The whole of this soil appears to have been formed by 
the decomposition of the trap. In some parts, this trans- 
mutation is already nearly completed; for, on penetrating to 
any depth in the ground, we find nothing but a mass of 
reddish earth, with here and there a small nucleus of stone 
enveloped in concentric crusts of matter, in an intermediate 
‘State between that and soft earth. In other parts, however, 
and those the more numerous, where the greater compactness 
of the trap, or some other cause, has retarded the process 
of disintegration, we meet with little or no earth, but with 
angular masses of stone without any crust. sas 
“Various French Naturalists who had occasion to examine 
the structure of this island, have given it as their opinion, 
that it is entirely of volcanic origin; and if the description 
of rocks known by the name of trap is proved to be a 
product of fire, no spot upon the face of the globe has à 
fairer claim to that origin: yet the attentive mineralogist will 
stumble upon objects, the existence of which he will find 
it difficult to reconcile with any theory which would attempt 
to account for its formation, on the level, at least, where it 
actually lies, . 
. “On the plain, for instance, that spreads out from the 
base of the Tamarind Mountain, there is a mass of petrified 
coral, about twelve feet high, and forty yards in circumference 
very little sunk in the ground, and appearing as if it had 
been dropped there by accident. It is disposed in three 
distinct beds; the lowest divested of every trace of organiza- 
tion, and so indurated, that, on being struck, it gives - 
metallic sound; the others still retaining their organe 
tructure, though several blocks of the common 7 of the 
island are seen imbedded in their substance. The grou” 
