222 
A VOYAGE TO 
y 77 - lee, or wejft-fide. This I apprehend to have been the ope- 
— P _ j ration of extraordinary high tides, occafioned by violent, 
accidental gales from the Weftward; which have heaped 
up the fand beyond the reach of common tides. The re¬ 
gular and gentle operation of thefe latter, again, throw up 
fand enough to form a barrier againft the next extraordi¬ 
nary high tide, or ftorm, fo as to prevent its reaching as far 
as the former had done, and deftroying the plants that may 
have begun to vegetate from cocoa-nuts, roots, and feed 
brought thither by birds, or thrown up by the fea. This, 
doubtlefs, happens very frequently; for we found many 
cocoa-nuts, and fome other things, juft fprouting up, only 
a few inches beyond where the fea reaches at prefent, in 
places where, it was evident, they could not have had their 
origin from thofe, farther in, already arrived at their full 
growth. At the fame time, the increafe of vegetables will 
add fall to the height of this new-created land; as the fallen 
leaves, and broken branches, are, in inch a climate, foon 
converted into a true black mould, or foil *. 
Perhaps there is another caufe, which, if allowed, will 
* Mr. Anderfon, in his Journal, mentions the following particulars, relative to Palmer- 
fton’s Ifland, which ftrongly confirm Captain Cook’s opinion about its formation. “ On 
“ the laft of the two iflots, where we landed, the trees, being in great numbers, had al- 
“ ready formed, by their rotten parts, little rifings or eminences, which, in time, from tire 
“ fame caufe, may become fmall hills. Whereas, on the firft iflot, the trees being Iefs 
“ numerous, no fuch thing had, as yet, happened. Neverthelefs, on that little fpot, the 
“ manner of formation was more plainly pointed out. For, adjoining to it, was a fmall 
“ ille, which had, doubtlefs, been very lately formed j as it was not, as yet, covered with 
K any trees, but had a great many fhrubs, fome of which -were growing among pieces of 
“ coral that the fea had thrown up. There was ftill a more fure proof of this method of 
“ formation a little farther on, where two patches of fand, about fifty yards long, and a 
w foot or eighteen inches high, lay upon the reef, but not, as yet, furnifhed with a fingle 
4 ‘ bufh, or tree.” 
accelerate 
