266 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



valuable in works of defense, burying in themselves 

 what is fired against them, with no splitting. 



The outer crust of all these rocks, where they are 

 exposed to the air in high and bare places, or on the 

 shore are washed by the water, is hard and a dirty 

 black in color; but beneath this crust the stone is 

 generally white, soft, fine-grained, and easily friable. 

 This looseness of structure is the occasion of a strange 

 hollowing and mining on the part of the waves play- 

 ing upon the rocky shore. In this way the shore is 

 given a sharp and jagged look, thousand-pointed and 

 knife-edged, and those unaccustomed pass over it with 

 pains and difficulty, but fishermen and others familiar 

 with these parts, resident here and often engaged on 

 the shore, run about easily, even barefoot, and seem not 

 to give any particular heed to their steps. If one strikes 

 upon these upstanding juts and points, they give out a 

 ringing sound. 



The black outer crust and the numerous larger and 

 smaller holes, as if blown, observable among these 

 edges and jutted points, give to the mass an appear- 

 ance something like scoria, and one might easily go 

 wrong in looking for traces of volcanic fire where the 

 element active has been precisely of the contrary sort, 

 were it not that the inner appearance and character of 

 these rocks give the true indication. 



The inhabitants compare these rocks to a honey- 

 comb, and call them ' honey comb'd rocks ' ; and in a 

 measure the whole island of Providence is made up of 

 such gibbous and hollowed rock. But one must confess 

 that it is nowhere easy to find a fertile rock. The 

 island is throughout covered thick with plants and 

 shrubs, the roots of which find their only nourishment 



