89 



latitude, and 32d of longitude, appear to the ma- 

 riner like a vast inundated meadow, grow pri- 

 mitively at the bottom of the ocean, and float 

 only in their ripened state, when they are torn 

 off by the motion of the waves. If this opinion 

 be founded, we must agree, that the family of 

 seaweeds offers formidable difficulties to natural- 

 ists, who persist in thinking, that absence of light 

 must always produce a whiteness ; for how can 

 we admit, that so many species of ulvaceae, and 

 dictyotese, with stems and green leaves, which 

 float on the ocean, have vegetated on rocks al- 

 most at the surface of the water ? 



From some notions which the captain of the 

 Pizarro had collected in an old Portugueze itine- 

 rary, he thought himself opposite a small fort, 

 situate at the north of Teguisa, the capital of the 

 island of Lanzerota. Mistaking a rock of basalt 

 for a castle, he saluted it by hoisting the Spanish 

 flag, and sent a boat with an officer to inquire of 

 t he commander if the English vessels were cruiz- 

 ing in the roads. We were not a little surprised 

 to learn, that the land, which we had considered 

 as a prolongation of the coasts of Lanzerota, Was 

 the small island of Graciosa, and that for seve- 

 ral leagues there was not an inhabited place. 



We took advantage of the boat to survey the 

 land, which enclosed a large bay. No language 

 can express the emotion, which a naturalist feels, 

 when he touches for the first time a land that is 



