LETTER II. 51 



Cavity, and fo vaniflied till the Sky was as clear 

 as before. I faw very few fmall Birds there (not 

 above twenty I believe,) and none of the Engliih 

 kind. N. B. That at Nevis and St. Chrijiophers^ 

 we have a few Birds called Mountain-Thrufhes, 

 that are wondrous fat, and refemble the Englifh 

 ones; and at the Sun's declenfion towards the 

 Tropick of Capricorn from the Equator, we are 

 vifited by a few Swallows. Our other Birds are 

 a fmall kind of Screech Ov/ls, Noddies, Spoon- 

 Bills, Pelicans, Boobies, common Pidgeons, two 

 or three forts of wild Pidgeons, Ground-Doves a 

 beautiful fort of bird, and Humming-Birds : In 

 the duik of the Evening we have fome Batts fly- 

 ing about ; but it was never my fortune to knock 

 down one, though I employed a fharp-fighted 

 and nimble Negro feve^al times for that purpofe. 

 We every quarter of a minute heard an odd tho* 

 regular and periodical noife (which founded ex- 

 actly like the creaking of a Sugar-mill, or Cart 

 when it wants greaiing) from two or three diffe- 

 rent places that were not very far from us, tho' 

 we could not poffibly find out the caufe of it ; and 

 I took notice that we could not hear this noife 

 near fo diftindtly at the bottom where we dined 

 as we did about forty or fifty yards before we 

 came down to it, though it feemed to proceed 

 wholly from the bottom. We beheld continual 

 Clouds of Steam arifing out of the Veins of Sul- 



D 2 phur. 



