ADVERTISEMENT. 



Ixiii 



«' In the month of May of this year, fome 

 " fidiermen of Arromanches, near Bayeux, found 



at 



the tropical Seas, is the cocoa. This fruit frequently fails to 

 Ihores five or fix hundred leagues diftant from that on which it 

 grew. Nature formed it for croffing the Ocean. It is of an ob- 

 long, triangular, keel-fhaped form, fo that it floats away on one 

 of it's angles, as on a keel, and paffing through the fl:raits of rocks, 

 it runs afliore at length on the ftrand, where it quickly germi- 

 nates. It is fortified againfl: the fhock of driving aground by a 

 cafe called caire, which is an inch or two thick over the circumfe- 

 rence of the fruit, and three or four at it's pointed extremity, 

 which may be confidcred as it's prow, with fo much the more 

 reafon, that the other extremity is flattened like a poop. This 

 caire or hulk, is covered, externally, with a fmooth and coriaceous 

 membrane, on which characters might be traced ; and it is form- 

 ed, internally, of filaments interlaced, and mixed with a powder, 

 refembling faw-duft. By means of this elaftic cover, the cocoa 

 may be darted, by the violence of the billows, upon rocks, with- 

 out receiving any injury. Farther, it's interior fliell confifls of a 

 matter more flexible than {tone, and harder than wood, impe- 

 netrable to water, where it may remain a long time, without 

 rotting ; this is the cafe with it's hulk likewife, of which the In- 

 dians, for this very reafon, make excellent cordage for fhipping. 

 The fliell of the cocoa-nut is fo very hard, that the germ never 

 could force it's way out, had not Nature contrived, in it's pointed 

 extremity, where the caire is ftrongeft, three fmall holes, covered 

 with a fimple pellicle. 



There are, befides, a great many other bulky vegetables, which 

 the Currents of the Ocean convey to prodigious diflances, fuch as 

 the firs and the birches of the North, the double cocoas of the 

 Sechelles iflands, the bamboo^ of the Ganges, the great bulruflics 

 of the Cape of Good-Hope, &c. It would be very eafy to write 

 on their ftems with a fliarp-pointed fliell, and to render them 

 diftinguifiiable at Sea, by fome apparent fignal. 



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