88 
A VOYAGE TO 
[East Coast. 
1802. 
October. 
Saturday 9. 
edges, a new creation, as it was to us, but imitative of the old, was 
there presented to our view. We had wheat sheaves, mushrooms, 
stags horns, cabbage leaves, and a variety of other forms, glowing 
under water with vivid tints of every shade betwixt green, purple, 
brown, and white; equalling in beauty and excelling in grandeur 
the most favourite parterre of the curious florist. These were dif- 
ferent species of coral and fungus, growing, as it were, out of the 
solid rock, and each had its peculiar form and shade of colouring ; 
but whilst contemplating the richness of the scene, we could not long 
forget with what destruction it was pregnant. 
Different' corals in a dead state, concreted into a solid mass of 
a dull-white colour, composed the stone of the reef. The negro 
heads were lumps which stood higher than the rest; and being 
generally dry, were blackened by the weather ; but even in these, 
the forms of the different corals, and some shells were distinguisha- 
ble. The edges of the reef, but particularly on the outside where 
the sea broke, were the highest parts; within, there were pools and 
holes containing live corals, sponges, and sea eggs and cucumbers;* 
and many enormous cockles ( chama gigas ) were scattered upon dif- 
ferent parts of the reef. At low water, this cockle seems most com- 
monly to lie half open ; but frequently closes with much noise ; and 
the water within the shells then spouts up in a stream, three or four 
feet high : it was from this noise and the spouting of the water, that 
we discovered them, for in other respects they were scarcely to be 
distinguished from the coral rock. A number of these cockles were 
taken on board the ship, and stewed in the coppers ; but they were 
too rank to be agreeable food, and were eaten by few. One of them 
weighed 47|lbs. as taken up, and contained 3lbs. 2 oz. of meat ; but 
this size is much inferior to what was found by captains Cook and 
Bligh, upon the reefs of the coast further northward, or to several 
* What we called sea cucumbers, from their shape, appears to have been the heche de 
mer, or trepang ; of which the Chinese make a soup, much esteemed in that country for 
its supposed invigorating qualities. 
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