32 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPIC VL 
isi 8 . imprudently bathed, which occasioned, to some of 
Feb. 20. them, two or three days’ indisposition, and it was 
fortunate that they did not suffer from a coup de 
soldi This indiscretion was, however, never 
afterwards permitted. 
During the absence of the boat, Mr. Bedwell 
landed abreast the anchorage, and walked a mile 
inland to one of the salt marshes. On his way, 
he passed several ant-hills of the same descrip- 
tion as those seen by us at the Bay of Rest. The 
coast is here protected from inroads of the sea 
by a barrier of sand “ dunes,” from ten to twenty 
feet high, on which were growing a variety of 
plants, particularly a species of convolvolus, 
which, from the great size and length of its 
stem, being an inch in diameter and extending 
along the beach for more than thirty yards, is very 
conspicuous. Behind these “ dunes” the country 
is flat, and in most parts below the level of the 
sea ; so that when the tides rise high enough to 
pass over the breaks in the “ dunes,” the country 
is inundated, when, by the intense heat of the 
sun, the water is very speedily evaporated, and a 
salt incrustation, to a great extent, is formed 
upon the plains. At the distance of four or 
five miles from the beach, a small range of 
rocky hills, apparently destitute of vegetation, 
formed a boundary to the view. The shore is 
