98 PITCAIRN'S ISLAND. 
for cultivation. There being but little beach, 
the quantity of sea- weed washed up is small : 
such as there is, however, is employed for the 
use of the ground. 
Though the climate cannot be called un- 
healthy, the people are not generally long-lived. 
Arthur Quintall, the oldest man among them, is 
only fifty-five. He was born 1799. Elizabeth 
Young, daughter of the late John Mills, the oldest 
person in the island, is sixty- two, she having been 
born in 1792. The ailments to which the island- 
ers are most subject are, rheumatism, influenza, 
bilious affections, and diseases of the heart. 
Nature has fortified the coast with powerful 
barriers, which render it most difficult of access, 
except in Bounty Bay, situate on the north-east 
side ; and even there the approach is impossible 
when the sea is high. The ships, which occa- 
sionally remain awhile in the neighbourhood of 
the island, and for which there is abundance of 
water, stand off and on as well as they may, 
and as the wind allows them. Though sound- 
ings in from 25 to 35 fathoms may be obtained 
at some distance, anchorage is seldom resorted 
to ; the state of the ground being such as to 
cause a risk of losing the anchor. Lofty brist- 
ling rocks, one of which is called St. Paul's 
Point, rise perpendicularly from the sea; and 
cliffs, with clumps of cocoa-nut-trees at their 
base, are seen, as the boats approach the beach, 
which is shingly, and very narrow at the place of 
landing. The landing is effected in the boats of 
the natives ; these being better suited than ships' 
boats for passing the breakers. 
