1778. THE PACIFIC OCRAtf. I78 



They were all of the green kind ; and perhaps 

 as good as any in the world. We also caught, with 

 hook and line, as much fish as we could consume, 

 during our stay. They consisted principally of caval- 

 lies, of" different sizes ; large and small snappers ; and 

 a few of two sorts of rock-fish ; one with numerous 

 spots of blue, and the other with whitish streaks scat- 

 tered about. 



The soil of this island, in some places, is light 

 and black, evidently composed of decayed vegetables, 

 the dung of birds, and sand. There are other places 

 again, where nothing but marine productions, such as 

 broken coral stones, and shells, are to be seen. These 

 are deposited in long narrow ridges, lying in a paral- 

 lel direction with the sea-coast, not unlike a ploughed 

 field ; and must have been thrown up by the waves, 

 though, at this time, they do not reach within a 

 mile of some of these places. This seems to furnish 

 an incontestable proof, that the island has been pro- 

 duced by accessions from the sea, and is in a state of 

 increase ; for not only the broken pieces of coral, but 

 many of the shells, are too heavy and too large to 

 have been brought by any birds, from the beach, to 

 the places where they now lie. Not a drop of fresh 

 water was any where to be found, though frequently 

 dug for. We met with several ponds of salt water, 

 which had no visible communication with the sea, 

 and must, therefore, in all probability, be filled by the 

 water filtrating through the sand, in high tides. One 

 of the lost men found some salt on the south east 

 part of the island. But. though this was an arti- 

 cle of which we were in want, a man who could lose 

 himself as he did, and not know whether he was tra- 

 velling east, west, north or south, was not to be de- 

 pended upon as a fit guide to conduct us to the 



place. 



There were not the smallest traces of any human 

 being having ever been here before us ; and, indeed, 

 should any one be so unfortunate as to be accidentally 



