1778. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. ^5 



carry them alive in their hands ; and brownish 

 water-lizards, with a tail exactly like that of an eel, 

 which frequented the small standing pools about the 

 rocks. 



The insect tribe seem to be more numerous. For 

 though the season which is peculiarly fitted to their 

 appearing abroad was only beginning, we saw four or 

 five different sorts of butterflies, none of which were 

 uncommon, a good many humble-bees, some of our 

 common gooseberry moths, two or three sorts of flies, 

 a few beetles, and some musquitoes, which probabl) 

 may be more numerous and troublesome in a country 

 so full of wood during the summer, though at this 

 time they did little mischief. 



As to the mineral substances in this country, though 

 we found both iron and copper here, there is little 

 reason to believe that either of them belong to the 

 place. Neither were the ores of any metal seen, if 

 we except a coarse, red, earthy, or ochry substance, 

 used by the natives in painting themselves, which 

 probably may contain a little iron, with a white and 

 black pigment used for the same purpose. But we 

 did not procure specimens of them, and therefore 

 cannot positively determine what are their component 

 parts. 



Besides the stone or rock that constitutes the moun- 

 tains and shores which sometimes contains pieces 

 of very coarse quartz, we found amongst the natives 

 things made of a hard black gra?iite, though not re- 

 markably compact or fine grained ; a greyish whet- 

 stone, the common oil-stone of our carpenters, in 

 coarser and finer pieces, and some black bits which 

 are little inferior to the hone-stone. The natives also 

 use the transparent leafy glimmer*, or Muscovy glass, 

 a brown leafy or martial sort, and they sometimes 

 brought to us pieces of rock-crystal, tolerably trans- 

 parent. The first two are probably found near the 

 spot, as they seemed to be in considerable quantities, 

 but the latter seems to be brought from a greater dis- 



t 2 



