112 cook's first voyage may, 



companied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander. We 

 found walking here exceedingly troublesome, for the 

 ground was covered with a kind of grass, the seeds 

 of which were very sharp, and bearded backwards; 

 so that whenever they stuck into our clothes, which 

 indeed was at every step, they worked forwards by 

 means of the beard, till they got at the flesh ; and at 

 the same time we were surrounded by a cloud of mus- 

 quitos, which incessantly tormented us with their 

 stings. We soon met with several places where the 

 ship might conveniently be laid ashore ; but to our 

 great disappointment we could find no fresh water. 

 We proceeded, however, up the country, where we 

 found gum-trees like those that we had seen before, 

 and observed that here also the gum was in very 

 small quantities. Upon the branches of these trees, 

 and some others, we found ants' nests, made of clay, 

 as big as a bushel, something like those described in 

 Sir Hans Sloan's Natural History of Jamaica, vol. ii. 

 p. 2521. tab. 258., but not so smooth : the ants which 

 inhabited these nests were small, and their bodies 

 white. But upon another species of the tree we 

 found a small black ant, which perforated all the 

 twigs, and having worked out the pith, occupied 

 the pipe which had contained it ; yet the parts in 

 which these insects had thus formed a lodgment, and 

 in which they swarmed in amazing numbers, bore 

 leaves and flowers, and appeared to be in as flourish- 

 ing a state as those that were sound. We found also 

 an incredible number of butterflies, so that for the 

 space of three or four acres the air was so crowded 

 with them, that millions were to be seen in every 

 direction, at the same time that every branch and 

 twig was covered with others that were not upon the 

 wing. We found here also a small fish of a singular 

 kind; it was about the size of a minnow, and had two 

 very strong breast fins : we found it in places that 

 were quite dry, where we supposed it might have 

 been left by the tide ; but it did not seem to have 



