174 cook's first voyage JULY, 



high : they were also rendered exceedingly slippery 

 by the water of innumerable springs which issued 

 from the fissures on the surface : yet up these preci- 

 pices a way was to be traced by a a succession of 

 long pieces of the bark of the Hibiscus tiliaceus, 

 which serv^ed as a rope for the climber to take hold 

 of, and assisted him in scrambling from one ledge to 

 another, though upon these ledges there was footing 

 only for an Indian or a goat. One of these ropes 

 was nearly thirty feet in length, and their guides of- 

 fered to assist them in mounting this pass, but recom- 

 mended another at a little distance lower down, as 

 less difficult and dangerous. They took a view of 

 this " better way," but found it so bad that they did 

 not choose to attempt it, as there was nothing at the 

 top to reward their toil and hazard, but a grove of 

 the wild plantain or vae tree, which they had often 

 seen before. 



During this excursion, Mr. Banks had an excellent 

 opportunity to examine the rocks, which were almost 

 every where naked, for minerals ; but he found not 

 the least appearance of any. The stones every where, 

 like those of Madeira, showed manifest tokens of 

 having been burnt ; nor is there a single specimen 

 of any stone, among all those that were collected in 

 the island, upon which there are not manifest and in- 

 dubitable marks of fire ; except, perhaps, some small 

 pieces of the hatchet-stone, and even of that, other 

 fragments were collected which were burnt almost to 

 a pumice. Traces of fire are also manifest in the 

 very clay upon the hills ; and it may, therefore, not 

 unreasonably be supposed, that this and the neigh- 

 bouring islands are either shattered remains of a 

 continent, which some have supposed to be necessary 

 in this part of the globe, to preserve an equilibrium 

 of its parts, which were left behind when the rest 

 sunk by the mining of a subterraneous fire, so as to 

 give a passage to the sea over it ; or were torn from 

 rocks, which, from the creation of the world, had 



