108 cook's first voyage may, 



circuit, having an appearance rather of barrenness 

 than fertility. At this time we saw smoke in many 

 places at a considerable distance inland, and there- 

 fore conjectured that there might be a lagoon, river, 

 or inlet, running up the country, the rather as we 

 had passed two places which had the appearance of 

 being such ; but our depth of water was too little to 

 encourage me to venture where I should probably 

 have less. We had not stood to the northward above 

 an hour, before we suddenly fell into three fathom ; 

 upon which I anchored, and sent away the master 

 to sound the channel which lay to leeward of us, 

 between the northernmost island and the main : it 

 appeared to be pretty broad, but I suspected that 

 it was shallow, and so indeed it was found ; for the 

 master reported at his retnrn that in many places 

 he had only two fathom and a half, and where we 

 lay at anchor we had only sixteen feet, which was 

 not two feet more than the ship drew. While the 

 master was sounding the channel, Mr. Banks tried 

 to fish from the cabin windows with hook and line. 

 The water was too shallow for fish ; but the ground 

 was almost covered with crabs, which readily took 

 the bait, and sometimes held it so fast in their claws, 

 that they did not quit their hold till they were con- 

 siderably above water. These crabs were of two 

 sorts, and both of them such as we had not seen be- 

 fore : one of them was adorned with the finest blue 

 that can be imagined, in every respect equal to the 

 ultra-marine, with which all his claws and every 

 joint was deeply tinged : the under part of him was 

 white, and so exquisitely polished, that in colour and 

 brightness it exactly resembled the white of old 

 china. The other was also marked with the ultra- 

 marine upon his joints and his toes, but somewhat 

 more sparingly ; and his back was marked with three 

 brown spots, which had a singular appearance. The 

 people who had been out with the boat to sound, 

 reported, that, upon an island where we had observed 



