ISLETS. 
23 
thousands round his lantern, “ tapping at his win- 
dow ” all night long. 
There is another islet, the precipitous Ilha do 
Foucinhos, on which our party also landed. There 
was a little pond at the summit, on the surface 
of which disported some water-beetles, or gigantic 
whirlwigs, and crawling on the leaves I noticed a 
fiat, spiral pond-snail, called Planorbis. In lighting 
a beacon fire, as sailors arc fond of doing, our hands 
grew smutty, and looking round about us, we spied 
a washing-basin ready made by Nature in the core 
of an old beheaded aloe, and containing about a 
(|uart of clear rain-water I Turkey-buzzards cabnl)^ 
watched our movements from aloft ; and, solitary, 
on a pointed crag, sat a noble, bare-legged falcon, 
dio'esting at his leisure some victim of his prowess. 
C5 O 
Another day was devoted to the small island 
named Praya do Vermelha. The heaped -up 
boulders were crowded with aloes, always hereabout 
a conspicuous feature in the scene ; and the rents 
and fissures were green with prickly pears. Over- 
come by the heat, I seated myself on the rocks by 
