292 
SURVEY OP THE INTERTROPICAL 
isi9. imbricata ? ) the meat of which weighed seventy - 
SepTw. one pounds ; about fifty eggs were also procured. 
The boat was sent again at four o’clock in the 
morning, as it was then high water, but returned 
at daylight without success, 
is. Lacrosse Island, so named by Commodore Bau- 
din, is about nine miles in circumference, and 
about six hundred feet high; it is of a rugged 
character, and intersected by numerous deep 
ravines and gullies ; which, in the wet season, 
doubtless contain water. 
The seaward, or northern face of the island is 
formed of a fine-grained sand-stone, dipping in 
strata, with a slight inclination, to the S.E.: 
large blocks of the same stone were also found 
scattered over the hills. The soil, with which it 
is but slightly covered, is little better than a 
thin layer of sandy earth; but notwithstanding 
its sterile quality, it produces a variety of small 
plants, among which a shrubby acacia * was pre- 
dominant, and sufficiently abundant to tint the 
sides of the hills where it grew, with the sea- 
green colour of its foliage. At last quarter ebb 
we got underweigh, and proceeded to examine 
the opening, by steering S.S.W. towards the 
deepest part; at twenty-three miles from La- 
* This plant is described in Mr. Cunningham’s Journal as acacia 
leucophcea. 
