y 



EARTH AND LANDS 



^5 



mark, whereon 



and 



few 



her plants will thrive: islands* 



the refl of the ledge of rocks is fo low, that the fea frequently flows 

 over it at high and fometimes at low water.. Several of the larger 

 ifles of this kind are regularly inhabited; fome are only reforted to, 



r 



now and t4ien by the inhabitants of the neighbouring high ifles. 



for the purpofes of fifhing, fowling and turtling; and fome others- 

 are abfolutely uninhabited,, though they are furniflied with coco nut- 



are often reforted to in great flocks by man of war birds j, 



trees and 



boobies, gulls, terns and fome petrels. 



The high iflands of both kinds appear at a difl:ance, like larg 



midfl of 



the ocean, and fome of them, are greatly elevated, 

 fo that their fummits are feldom free from clouds, Thofe, which 

 are furrounded by a reef and by a fertile plain, along the fea-fhores; 



i 



have commonly a more gentle flope ; whereas the others are fuddenly 



flieep 



It mufl: be allowed, hov/ever, that the hills in fome of 



/ 



era. 



new Hebrides viz,, Ambrrym, Sandv/ich, Ifle, Tanna and oth 



have likewife in feveral places an eafy afcent. 



The iflands feen by us in. the South Sea in the temperate Southern 

 )ne, are Eafter Ifland, Norfolk Ifland, and new Zeeland, and thefe 



are all high, and have no reef furrounding them. Norfolk Ifland is. 



however fituated upon- a 



T 



bank extending more than 



twelve 



miles round 



it. New Zeeland as far as we had an opportunity of 

 examining it, confifls of very high hills, of which fome in the: 

 v.ery interior parts have fummits almofl: always involved in clouds,. 



<m: 



