512 SCENERY OF THE ISLETS. 



islets of this extensive shoal will become united, and con- 

 stitute one large island covered with cocoa-nut 'trees. 

 Weh 1 then, may we exclaim with Mr. Crawfurd when 

 speaking of that vegetable blessing, the cocoa-nut : "How 

 wonderful to discover this useful plant silently propagated 

 over many thousand leagues, among hundreds of barbarous 

 tribes of dissimilar languages, whose very names and 

 situations are unknown to each other!" How extremely 

 fortunate is the curious fact that the cocoa-nut should 

 grow the easiest, and thrive the most luxuriantly, always 

 near the sea coast, and with what pains has Nature, to 

 ensure a safe passage to the tender embryo, encased it in 

 a strong thick husk that will remain uninjured when 

 dashed upon the shore by the billows! 



The general aspect of these small islets, thus formed out 

 of a huge reef in ihe middle of the ocean, is by no means 

 inviting. It is a wild and barren scene. The soil is sand, 

 and ornamented only by a few stunted shrubs; the sullen 

 ocean roars in the distance, and breaks over the barren 

 reef, and upon the beaches of the islands, in vast rolling 

 surges, while screaming all around, flocks of snow-white 

 tern, and long-winged gulls hover over the water, or 

 cover the bare ground as they sit brooding over their eggs. 



On some of the low islets you could not walk without 

 crushing the marbled eggs, or treading on the callow 

 young, of Tern, Petrels, and Noddies. One species of 

 Puffinus, allied to P. fuliginosa, sleeps, by day, in bur- 

 rows formed by its feet in the sand, at the bottom of 

 which it deposits a milk-white egg, as large as a duck's. 

 It frequents the centre of the islands, and howls most 

 dismally all night long, making a mournful noise, like the 



