CAPTAIN TUCKEYS NARRATIVE. 33 



collected among the rocks were not numerous, consisting of 

 patella, buccina, turbo, trochii, and dead shells of cones. Two 

 species of sea egg (echinus) were also found on the rocks. 

 I The insects seen (besides the common ^y of a small size, 

 and neither numerous nor troublesome,) were several kinds 

 of grasshoppers (gnjlli ) , three or four species of coleopterous 

 insects, among which was a small beetle (Scarabceus), and 

 some moths and butterflies. The only reptile seen was the 

 ommon stone lizard. 



Porto Praya has been so often visited by our navigators, 

 that it may be supposed they have left little room for new 

 nautical observations ; the directions for knowing the bay 

 are indeed so minute and various, as to confuse rather than 

 assist a stranger ; it seems however to have been forgotten, 

 that one marked and prominent feature is a better guide 

 than a number of trivial appearances, Avhich may change 

 with the position of the observer. 



It seems to me to be quite sufficient to inform the naviga- 

 tor, that the S.E. point of the island is seen as a A-ery long 

 and very low point in coming from the north or south ; that 

 to the west of this point, three or four miles, is a bay with a 

 brown sandy beach, a building, and a grove of date (not 

 cocoa-nut)* trees ; that this first bay must not be mis- 



* This mistake is made in all tiie directions for Porto Praya that I have seen ; 

 the trees are however sufficiently different in appearance, to render the cor- 

 rection proper. 



F 



