54 APPENDIX, NO. II. 



which is a delicious fruit from India, always found in tem- 

 perate climates. At the head of the harbour, looking 

 between north and east, and along all that quarter of the 

 compass, there are mountains not very high but easy of 

 cultivation, and abounding in all kinds of game, where we 

 found partridges, rabbits, (somewhat different from those in 

 Spain,) deer marked with black and white spots upon a 

 jrrey skin, and long branching horns, but some had not any 



horns. 



We saw two species of swine, one kind similar to those 

 of India which have the navel in the spine, but larger, and 

 the others resembling the " javalies" of Spain. We found 

 also buffaloes and many other animals, but no beasts of 

 prey. The sea produces abundance of fish, and all kinds 

 of shell-fish are very good and savoury, larger than any we 

 know of here ; for we caught crabs half a vara in width, 

 those of our coasts not being larger than the palm of a 

 hand. The coast on the side of Asia or Tartary have very 

 high mountains, so high that in some parts of their greatest 

 altitude they are covered with snow all the year, particularly 

 those which look to the north ; and these are so rugged and 

 craggy, that they appear incapable of cultivation ; the 

 ♦rreater part of the trees growing on them are very lofty 

 pines, which grow down to the shores of the sea. In the 

 same part of Asia, opposite the entrance of the harbour, 

 there is a pool of stagnant sea-water, in which was growing 

 a large plantation of reeds, springing up out of this same 

 water, which we found to be an admirable fishing place j 

 here we caught many large fish, some of them such as we 

 had known before, namely, conger-eels, soles, and others, 

 much larger than those which are found here. We saw 

 numbers of large fish swimming past us in their way from 

 the South to the North Sea. Among them were whaleS;^ 

 porpoises, and other great monsters. 



The Strait of Anian is fifteen leagues in length, and can 

 be freed easily with a tide lasting six hours, and those tides 



