T H E P A C I F I C O G E A N. 189 



belly. To this lift we muft add men-of-war-birds ; tropic- ^77^- 



January. 



birds ; curlews ; fand pipers ; a fmall land-bird like a «- 

 hedge-fparrovv ; land-crabs; fmall lizards ; and rats. 



As we kept our Chriftmas here, I called this difcovery 

 Chriftmas Ifland. I judge it to be about fifteen or twenty 

 leagues in circumference. It feemed to be of a femicir- 

 cular form ; or like the moon in the laft quarter, the two 

 horns being the North and South points ; which bear from 

 each other nearly North by Eaft, and South by Weft, four 

 or five leagues diftant. This Weft fide, or the little ifie at 

 the entrance into the lagooit, upon which we obferved the 

 eclipfe, lies in the latitude of 1° 59' North, and in the lon- 

 gitude of 202° 30' Eaft, determined by a confiderable num- 

 ber of lunar obfervations, which diflfered only 7' from the 

 time-keeper ; it being fo much lefs. The variation of the 

 compafs was 6' 22 i.' Eaft ; and the dip of the North end of 

 the needle 11° 54'. 



Chriftmas Ifland, like moft others in this ocean, is bounded N 

 by a reef of coral rocks, which extends but a little way 

 from the fliore. Farther out than this reef, on the Weft fide, 

 is a bank of fine fand, extending a mile into the fea. On 

 this bank is good anchorage, in any depth between eighteen 

 and thirty fathoms. In lefs than the firft mentioned depth, 

 the reef would be too near ; and in more than the laft, the 

 edge of the bank would not be at a fufficient diftance. 

 During the time we lay here, the wind blew, conftantly, a 

 frefli gale at Eaft, or Eaft by South, except one or two days. 

 We had, always, a great fwell from the Northward, which 

 broke upon the reef, in a prodigious furf. We had found 

 this fwell before we came to the ifland j and it continued, 

 for fome days after we left it. 



G H A P. . 



