198 SURVEY OF THE 1NTERTROPICAL 
1819 . upon the beard or hair. The canoes were not 
June 18. longer than eight feet, and would not safely carry 
more than two people ; the ends were stitched 
together by strips of the stem of the fiagellaria 
Mica. 
Few palm-trees were seen, but at the large 
islands, according to Captain Cook’s account*, 
they are probably abundant. A considerable 
quantity of pumice-stone was found, as is usual 
in every place that we have landed at within the 
tropic, heaped up above the high-water mark. 
During the afternoon we had little wind ; in the 
evening we passed a mile and a half to the east- 
ward of a low and dangerous reef, which escaped 
Captain Cook’s observation ; the only part of it 
that was visible above the water were two low 
rocks, but as the tide ebbed the craggy heads of 
several smaller ones gradually uncovered, and at 
low water it is probably quite dry ; we passed it 
in ten fathoms. It is not probable that its extent 
is greater than what is exposed at low water, but 
from its steepness it is very dangerous. 
At sunset we anchored about four miles to the 
eastward of the position assigned to a reef, on 
which the ship Lady Elliot struck, in 1815 ; but 
19. saw nothing of it. At day-break we resumed 
* Hawkeswortd, vol.iii,p. 136. 
