30 
ALLIGATOR POND. 
cup, and crowded with wasps ; others old and aban- 
doned. There must have been in that hut some 
hundreds of nests. Wasps of the same species were 
swarming about the spinous leaves of the Pinguin, 
a sort of wild pine-apple, of which fences are made. 
The road soon became interesting, being bounded by 
huge masses of white limestone singularly honey- 
combed with round holes of various sizes.* In these 
holes often were seen small shells, perfectly white 
like the stone itself, of the genera Helix, Cyclostoma, 
Cylindrella, &c. ; and many were scattered about, 
some whole, and some in fragments. In many cases 
the shell accurately fitted the hole, and the stone 
bore evident marks of having been in a plastic con- 
dition when the shells were enveloped in it. I at 
first supposed that they were fossil, but I have since 
found that they are the common living species of the 
woods. This fact is interesting, as it seems to prove 
the comparatively recent formation of this honey- 
combed limestone, which forms so large a proportion 
of the rock in the central part of the island. Out 
of the hollows of the rock on either hand, their roots 
fast grasping the projections and twining round the 
sharp points between the holes, grew many tall trees 
of various kinds, interlaced with climbers, and hung 
with festoons of Hanes, resembling long and twisted 
* The appearance of this limestone is very singular. Sir H. De la 
Beche accounts for its structure, by suggesting that it is not homo- 
geneous in substance ; that some parts were originally more argilla- 
ceous than others ; and that these becoming decomposed by the action 
of the atmosphere, left irregular cavities in the harder and more 
durable stone. 
