182 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
of those islands that form the Indian Archipelago. 
This creature having prodigious nippers, ascends the 
tree, to which it clings with great ease ; and when it 
has reached the top, seizes the stem of the nut in its 
vast pincers, separates it from the cluster, and lets it 
drop upon the ground beneath. The lobster then de- 
scends, tears off the exterior coat with astonishing fa- 
cility and quickness, cracks the nut, and sucks out the 
tender pulp. This lobster is a great delicacy. 
On the sixth week after our departure from Co- 
chin, we encountered a severe gale, which did us 
some damage, and our provisions were nearly ex- 
hausted. A duck curried was the only fresh food 
we tasted for several days, and a half-starved tur- 
key was all that remained of our stock. Flying- 
fish were here happily abundant, many of which flew 
upon our deck, affording us on more than one occasion 
an unexpected luxury. We came at length to an an- 
chor off Dagomar, a small town upon the Arabian 
coast, where we received a pilot on board to take us 
to Mascat. 
On the second day after quitting Dagomar, 
about noon, we reached Mascat harbour, which is 
protected by stupendous rocks; between these is a 
narrow entrance of some danger, unless you have 
a skilful pilot. On the right of this strait is a cu- 
rious conical rock, standing apart from the masses 
behind it, and quite surrounded by the sea, in which 
it appears to stand sentinel at the entrance of the 
harbour. At the base it has a cleft, resembling a 
mighty sabre-stroke, which seems to have thrown 
it slightly out of the perpendicular. It is a pic- 
