io6 Mr . clayton’s Account 
herbs and roots came to as great perfe£lion as in England, 
and in great plenty, only we were forced to flielter every 
bed in the garden, by a good fod wall, from the S.W. and 
S.E. winds as much as pollible, otherwife our labour 
would have been in vain. 
. The latter end of September or beginning of O&ober, 
the fea birds begin to come on fhore to build nefts and 
lay. The firft which appear are the albatrofs, which are 
about the fize of a large goofe, quite white, except their 
wings, which are a dark brown ; the bills are of a dirty 
yellow, about three inches long; very ftrong and the 
edges iharp as a knife, hooked at the point ; they breathe 
hard through two fmall holes in the bill clofe to the head, 
and frequently make a found like a trumpet which chil- 
dren buy at fairs. Their wings are very long and narrow, 
with four joints in each wing, and extend ten or twelve 
feet from tip to tip. Their feet are webbed, very thin, 
have three claws ; on the outer claw are four joints, the 
middle three, and the inner one. When they come to 
their towns, as we called their nefting-places, it is by hun- 
dreds. They fet very tame, and continue one or other 
continually founding their bills. They never move off 
their nefts let what will approach, and we fhoved them 
off whenever we wanted their eggs. The egg is much 
larger than a goofe’s. The yolk is yellow; the white 
never boils hard, and always continues as clear as ifing- 
glafs; our crew found them a good refrefhment, though 
I thought them very ftrong. The nefts of thefe birds 
are made on the ground with earth; are round, about 
5 one 
