ITS DESCRIPTION. 



373 



somewhat laborious work to the crews of merchant 

 ships; this might be obviated in some measure by 

 using a light anchor, which could be done with 

 perfect safety in the still waters within the reefs. 

 We found two barques at anchor, which had ar- 

 rived on the preceding day. In accordance with a 

 practice very generally observed, they were giving 

 themselves a short period of repose and relaxation 

 after the anxieties and danger of the outer passage ; 

 which, short as it is, has doubtless sprinkled grey 

 hairs over many a seaman's head. 



Although Booby Island is a mere rock, from the 

 various associations connected with it, being during 

 one half of the year the constant resort of Euro- 

 peans, it becomes at once a place of interest, and 

 imperatively demands some notice at our hands. 

 It is a quarter of a mile in diameter, flat, and about 

 thirty feet high, the summit being bare porphyry 

 rock. A valley intersects the north-west side of the 

 island, in which a few creepers, some brushwood, 

 and two or three trees of tolerable size, with a pe- 

 culiar broad green leaf, bearing a great resemblance 

 to that of the wild almond of the West Indies, were 

 seen, giving shelter to some pigeons and quails, in 

 which latter the island abounds, even more than in 

 the bird which gives its name to the locality. Still, 

 however, from the white colour of the top of the 

 island, produced by the boobies, it is clearly one of 

 their temporary haunts ; and indeed, subsequently, 

 in the month of September, their season of incuba- 



