AG 
and makesa bank called the Vibora by the Spaniards ; 
it runs tc the Caseabel rock, ninety odd miles west- 
ward, bristled with reefs and sunken rocks having 
a depth of from 7 to 17 fathoms. Easterly winds, 
that is the trade winds, veering southward and north- 
ward, for determinate portions of the year, roll 
constant billows over it. Westerly breezes, varying 
northerly and southerly, bring tremendous gales and 
heavy swells. The rough agency of all these move- - 
ments hag. heaped up the sands and the corals, and 
shells, cementing them into rock and giving the 
island an elevation of from 15 to 20 feet. 
The vegetation on these islands is stunted surianas, 
among whose tough and twisted branches the birds 
find nestling places. To these lonely islets resort 
thousands and tens of thousands ef sea-fowl.. As 
soon as visitors land, myriad of birds are upon the 
wing in all directions, Some flocks rise in circling 
flight high up into the air, and descending again in 
the same dense numbers as they rose, settle in more 
remote places; others break away hurriedly, and fly 
ina wide sweep far around, bat return again hastily 
to the rocks they had quitted, reconciled to bear 
with the disturbance. The turmoil and hubbub of 
the thousands of birds thus suddenly put upon the 
wing, overpower for a moment the roar of the 
reakers, and darken the airlike the sudden passing 
of a cloud. 
The constant inhabitants cf the rocks are several 
. - species of the booby gannets, terns, gulls, and petrel 
-—and the frigate pelican. The frigate birds pre- - 
serve their predeliction for rapine amid the teeming 
