Insects of the Country. 75 
tie rate of rear three miles an hour, by which we were fo fud- 
denly carried upon the fhoal. Our latitude by obfervation was 
22 : 8 S. ; Cape Townlhend bore E. 16 S. diftant thirteen 
miles ; and the weftermoft part of the main in fight W. ^ N. 
At this time a great number of iflands lay all round us. 
In the afternoon, having founded round the fhip, and found 
that there was water fufficient to carry her over the Ihoal, we 
weighed, and about three o’clock made fail and ftood to the 
weft ward, as the land lay, having lent a boat ahead to found. 
At fix in the evening, we anchored in ten fathom, with a fan- 
dy bottom, at about two miles diflance from the' main ; the 
weltermoft part of which bore W. N. W. and a great number 
of iflands, lying a long way without us, were ftill in fight. 
At five o’clock the next morning, I fent away the mailer 
with two boats to found the entrance of an inlet, which bore 
from us weft, at about the diftance of a league, into which I 
intended to go with the fhip, that I might wait a few days till 
the moon fhould encreafe, and in the mean time examine the 
country. As foon as the fhip could be got under fail, the boats 
made the fignal for anchorage ; upon which we ftood in, and 
anchored in five fathom water, about a league within the en- 
trance of the inlet ; which, as I obferved a tide to flow and ebb 
cOnfiderably, I judged to be a river that ran up the country to a 
confiderable diftance. In this place I had thoughts of laying 
the fhip afhore, and cleaning fier bottom ; I therefore landed 
with the mafter in fearch of a convenient place for that pur- 
pofe, and was accompanied by Mr. Banks, and Dr. Solander. 
We found walking here exceedingly troublefome, for the ground 
wa3 covered with a kind of grafs, the feeds of which were very 
Jharp, and bearded backwards ; fo that whenever they ftuck 
into our clothes, which indeed was at every ftep, they worked 
forwards by means of the beard, till they got at theflefh ; and 
at the fame time we were furrounded by a cloud of mufquitos, 
which inceffantly tormented us with their flings. We foon 
met with feveral places where the fhip might conveniently be 
laid aihore ; but to our great difappointment we could find no 
frefh water. We proceeded however up the country, where we 
found gum trees like thofe that we had feen before, and ob- 
ferved that here alfo the gum was in very fmall quantities. Upon 
the branches of thefe trees, and fome others, we found ants 
nefts, made of clay, as big as a bufhel, fomething like thofe 
defcribed in Sir Hans Sloan’s Natural Hiftory of Jamaica, val. 
2. p. 221, tab. 258, but not fo fmooth : the ants which in- 
hibited thefe nefts were fmall, and their bodies white. But 
upon another fpecies of the tree we found a fmall black ant, 
which perforated all the twigs, and having worked out the 
pit ., occupied the pipe which had contained, it ; yet the parts 
in which thefe infedts had thus formed a lodgment, and in 
G 2 which 
