THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
145 
gines the ftone to be; and as the chances are, upon the 
whole, confiderably againft his hitting it, odds, of all de¬ 
grees, varying with the opinion of the fkill of the parties, 
are laid on the fide of him who hides. 
Betides thefe games, they frequently amufe themfelves 
with racing-matches between the boys and girls; and here 
again they wager with great fpirit. I faw a man in a moft 
violent rage, tearing his hair, and beating his bread:, after 
loling three hatchets at one of thefe races, which he had 
juft before purchafed from us, with half his fubftance. 
Swimming is not only a neceflary art, in which both 
their men and women are more expert than any people we 
had hitherto feen, but a favourite diverfton amongft them. 
One particular mode, in which they fometimes amufed 
themfelves with this exercife, in Karakakooa Bay, appeared 
to us moft perilous and extraordinary, and well deferving a 
diftindt relation. 
The furf, which breaks on the coaft round the bay, ex¬ 
tends to the diftance of about one hundred and fifty yards 
from the fiiore, within which fpace, the furges of the fea, 
accumulating from the fhallownefs of the water, are dalli¬ 
ed againft the beach with prodigious violence. Whenever, 
from ftormy weather, or any extraordinary fwell at fea, the 
impetuofity of the furf is increafed to its utmoft height, they 
choofe that time for this amufement, which is performed in 
the following manner: Twenty or thirty of the natives, 
taking each a long narrow board, rounded at the ends, fet 
out together from the Ihore. The firft wave they meet, they 
plunge under, and fuffering it to roll over them, rife again 
beyond it, and make the belt of their way, by fwimming, 
out into the fea. The fecond wave is encountered in the 
Vol. III. U fame 
^ 79 - 
March. 
