PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
245 
In excellence. Their juice, when stewed with sugar, made a de¬ 
licious sirrup, while their skins afford a most excellent preserve, 
with which w r e made pies, tarts, 8cc. We saw, in some small la¬ 
goons at the back of the beaches, teal and plover; but as I had 
forbid the use of fire-arms, in consequence of the scarcity of pow¬ 
der, we did not obtain any of them. Cray and other fish were 
found here in abundance, but we were not enabled to procure any 
tortoises, though there can scarcely be a doubt that an abundance 
of them are to be found on other parts of the island. 
The vegetation on that part forming the bay, was entirely 
burnt up, and, with the exception of the prickly pear-trees, there 
was no verdure whatever for the support of animal life ; and they 
were so situated among the sharp beds of lava, it would be impos¬ 
sible for the tortoises to approach them. We saw a few of their 
shells and bones; but they appeared to have been long dead. We were 
not enabled to make any progress into the interior of the island, 
on account of the great difficulty of walking, nor would I permit 
the boats in their search to go beyond the points of the bay, as I 
wished to be always prepared for getting under way at a moment’s 
warning, and wished them to be within signal-distance ; and in¬ 
deed the great stock of tortoises we brought from James’ Island, 
and the supply of turtle we had here obtained, left no room for 
adding to our stock, if we had found them. We saw here none 
of the land-guanas ; and the only animals of the reptile kind we 
met with were a few lizards. Land-birds were very scarce; 
boobies, pelicans, and man-of-war hawks were in abundance. 
This island, like all the rest, is of volcanic origin, but the 
ravages appear less recent here than at most of the others. Its 
vegetable productions are the same, with the exception of the 
cotton-tree, of which I saw no vestige ; but, owing to the extreme 
drought, it may have perished in this part, and perhaps exists 
in the interior, where there is some appearance of verdure. At 
James* as well as at Charles’ Island, the cotton-tree grows very 
luxuriantly, most of the trees being from eight to ten feet high, 
and appears to be of the same kind as that produced on the Missis¬ 
sippi ; but, for want of culture, the pods do not produce in such 
large quantities, nor is the cotton equal in quality ; attention to its 
