Creat Plenty of Fish. 14.1 
toconfiftof fmall parts of vegetables, kneaded together with 
a glutinous matter, which their bodies probably fupply ; upon 
breaking this cruft, innumerable cells, fwarming with inha- 
bitants, appear in a great variety of winding directions, all 
communicating with each other, and with leveral apertures 
that led to other nefts upon the fame tree : they have alfo one 
large avenue, or covered way, leading to the ground, and 
carried on under it to the other neft or houfe that is conftrudied 
there. This houfe is generally at the root of a tree, but not 
of that upon which their other dwellings are conftrudled : it is 
formed like an irregularly fided cone, and fometimes is more 
than fix feet high, and nearly as much in diameter. Some 
are fmaller, and thefe are generally fiat fided, and very much 
refemble in figure the ftones which are feen in many parts of 
England, and fuppofed to be the remains of druidical anti- 
quity. The outftde of thefe is of well tempered clay, about 
two inches thick ; and within are the cells, which have no 
opening outwards, but communicate only with the fubterra- 
nean way to the houfes on the tree, and to the tree near which 
they are conftrudted, where they afcend up the root, and fo up 
the trunk and branches, under covered ways of the fame kind 
as thofe by which they defcended from their other dwellings. 
To thefe firadbires on the ground they probably retire in the 
winter, or rainy feafons, as* they are proof againft any wet 
that can fall ; which thofe in the tree, though generally con- 
ftrutted under fome overhanging branch, from the nature and 
thinnefs of their cruft of wall, cannot be. 
The fea in this country is much more liberal of food to the 
inhabitants than the land ; and though fifh is not quite fo 
plenty here as they generally are in higher latitudes, yet we 
feidom hauled the feine without taking from fifty to two hund- 
red weight. They are of various forts ; but, except the mul- 
let, and fome of the fhell-filh, none of them are known in 
Europe : mod of them are palatable, and fome are very deli- 
cious. Upon the Ihoals and reef there are incredible numbers 
of the fineft green turtle in the world, and oyfters of various 
kinds, particularly the rock oyfter and the pearl-oylter. The 
gigantic cockles have been mentioned already ; befides which 
there are fea-crayfi/h, orlobfters, and crabs ; of thefe however 
we faw only the lhells. In the rivers and fait creeks there are 
aligators. 
The only perfon who has hitherto given any account of 
this country, or its inhabitants, is Dampier, and though he is, 
in general, a writer of credit, yet in many particulars he is 
miftaken. The people whom he faw were indeed inhabitants 
of a part of the coaft very diftant from each other, and there 
being a perfect uniformity in perfon and cuftoms among them 
all. 
