202 CRUSOE'S ISLAND. 



tor, who had his horse ready saddled, and together we 

 went over to the Point, after a short stay and a hmeli- 

 eon, three miles farther, where lay, or rather sat, a 

 stranded schooner, called the " Jane Milloy." A 

 large crowd of Tobagans had gathered there to pur- 

 chase the spars and rigging of the abandoned vessel, 

 which some fortunate individual bought for fifty 

 pounds — far less than the copper on her bottom was 

 worth. 



At the wreckage sale I met many interesting 

 people, among them a local botanist and naturalist, 

 who called my attention to the fact that the inter- 

 stices of the coral rock were filled with pure asphal- 

 tum, similar to that found in the celebrated Pitch 

 Lake of Trinidad. As the two islands are here but 

 twenty miles apart, and as this is on the extreme 

 southern point nearest to Trinidad, it is more than 

 possible that there may be some intimate connection 

 beneath the sea. 



The coral reef is here visible a long distance from 

 the shore, and yet the "Jane Milloy" was firmly 

 cradled on the broad reef, less than two hundred 

 yards from the beach of sand, in water so shallow 

 that boys were wading out to her all the afternoon. 

 It was a matter of wonder how she got there at all, 

 so close to the shore. Her master said that he mis- 

 took for the harbor light the torch flame of some 

 men out fire-fishing, that stormy night in which his 

 vessel went ashore. 



A striking peculiarity of the southern shore of 

 Tobago is the extreme shallowness of the water, where 



