EXCURSION DOWN THE HARBOUR. 355 



one of them to be imprisoned for two days, for some 

 petty theft. Confinement, however, had such an 

 effect on him, that he was obliged to let him out 

 before the time expired, or it was thought he would 

 have died or gone madT 



A party of us made a boat excursion of two days 

 down the harbour. We landed first near Cayman 

 Creek, but found the country there so dry and burnt 

 up that no living thing was to be seen. We observed 

 on the sand of the beach, however, the impression of 

 an " alligator,"* about ten feet long, with every 

 scale distinctly marked, which had been basking in 

 the sun. In a calm, several of these animals may 

 be seen at once, floating on the water, they ap- 

 pear to be almost entirely confined to the sea, and 

 are said to visit the lagoons and fresh-water pools 

 solely for the purpose of breeding. 



We then visited some lagoons lower down, where 

 we got some tolerable sport among the wild fowl 

 that night and next morning. We then crossed 

 to the other side of the harbour. Here, about 

 Knocker's Bay, the whole country was a bare sandy 

 or stony plain, covered with gum-trees, except a 

 hollow, through which ran a drain of fresh water. 



We returned from this excursion with anything 

 but a favourable impression of the fertility of the 

 soil in the neighbourhood of the harbour. We were 



* These animals are, I believe, really crocodiles, and, as Mr. 

 J. E. Gray informs me, of the same species as the common cro- 

 codile of the Ganges. 



