2IO CAPTAIN COOK 



disappointed, for he had counted on finding in 

 these islands food for his men and forage for his 

 animals, which were beginning to die of hunger. 

 It was nearly two months since he had left New 

 Zealand; his revictualling had been very scanty 

 and provisions were running short. Happily 

 Palmerston Island, though uninhabited, pro- 

 vided grass and young coconut trees which were 

 a great help to the livestock. Cook landed there 

 with a small party. The men killed a quantity 

 of tropical birds with succulent flesh, and caught 

 several fish, which the receding tide had left in 

 holes on the coral reef which connected the nine 

 or ten islets which enclosed Palmerston Island. 

 Cook records in his Journal : "At one part of the 

 reef, which looks into, or bounds, the lake that 

 is within, there was a large bed of coral, almost 

 even with the surface, which afforded, perhaps, 

 one of the most enchanting prospects that Nature 

 has, any where, produced. Its base was fixed to 

 the shore, but reached so far in, that it could 

 not be seen; so that it seemed to be suspended in 

 the water, which deepened so suddenly, that, at 

 the distance of a few yards, there might be seven 

 or eight fathoms. The sea was, at this time, quite 

 unruffled, and the sun, shining bright, exposed 

 the various sorts of coral, in the most beautiful 

 order; . . . But the appearance of these was 

 still inferior to that of the multitude of fishes, 



