194 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



try, prize thofe things only which are rare and 

 myfterious. 



In every iiland where the eye of the traveller has 

 been able to contemplate the primordial difpofitions 

 of Nature, he has found their fliores covered with 

 vegetables, all the fruits of which poffefs nautical 

 characters. James Cartier and Champlain reprefent 

 the ftrands of the lakes of North-America as 

 (haded by (lately walnut-trees. Homer, who has fo 

 attentively ftudied Nature, at times, and in places, 

 where fhe ftill retained her virgin beauty, has 

 planted the wild-olive along the fhores of the 

 iiland on which Ulyjjes, floating upon a raft, is 

 thrown by the temped. The navigators who have 

 made the firft difcoveries in the feas of the Eaft- 

 Indies, frequently found in them (hallows planted 

 with cocoa trees. The Sea throws fuch quantities 

 of fennel-feed on the fliores of Madeira, that one 

 of it's bays has obtained the name of Funchal, or 

 Fennel- Bay. 



It was by the courfe of thofe nautical feeds, 

 too carelefsly obferved by modern Seamen, that 

 the Savages formerly difcovered the iflands to 

 windward of the countries which they inhabited. 

 They formed conjectures refpecting a tree at a 

 great diftance, on feeing it's fruit caft upon their 

 fhores. By fimilar indications, Chrijiopher Columbus 

 *v acquired 





