FLORIDA. 283 



was the second time the Bishop liad visited tliese seas. On 

 tlie first occasion he liad talcL-n away with him some young 

 people whom he now bi-ou!iiit buck, and witli wli^m lie had 

 landed early that morning in order to visit some villages 

 on the slopes of the coast. lie had met witli excellent 

 plantations of bananas and yams, lai'ge and handsome 

 dwellings, enclosures surrounded with well-made palisades, 

 and natives who liad shown themselves well-disposed and 

 even civil. 



Not veniurins; to land, I took advantao-e of low tide 

 to examine the Madrepore Re(;f at a little distance from the 

 ships, in tlie ciimpaii}' of Messrs. Veitcli and Brazier. This 

 reef seems to be a sort of coral beacli, made of broken-up 

 coral sprigs, to some depth ; tlie A\att'r runs through as well 

 as over it. I sank in up to my hips in this soft coral. I got 

 on this reef a few seaweeds and shells; one of tlie latter, 

 three or foui' inches long, was like a much-twisted mussel 

 shell. There were very small iisli of a beautiful deej) blue 

 swimming about, but I could not catch them. I caught a 

 shrimp with one claw, and found a tridacna about one foot 

 across. This large shell was imbedded in the liroken coral, 

 with the lips about six or eiglit iiiclie.-i apart, tilled with a 

 leathery sort of membrane covered with an endless number 

 of very bright green spots in straight lines — these spots 

 were holes or valves of some kind, I have no doubt; in the 

 centre of tlie open space, and about the middle of the two 

 lips, taking them lengthwise, there was a somewhat raised 

 aperture, from which, when I touched the membrane, issued 



