VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
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buſh, or tree, but ſuch as are quite familiar to my eye; they chiefly conſiſted of the mangrove, the cocoa nut, and cotton tree.
Fiſh were in great abundance, but would not take the bait, which we attributed to the great number of ſharks off this iſland. Some of them followed the boat until the water left them almoſt dry: thoſe we caught, were full of ſquid and cray-fiſh, as were the porpoiſes which we ſtruck. Theſe were innumerable, and we took them, whenever we pleaſed. Eels are plenty, and very large: we caught ſeveral of them among the rocks, as well as ſome toad fiſh. Shell-fiſh, were ſcarce, though we collected very large limpets, of a new kind, and a few dead conches. The latter were ſeen in great numbers on the beach, and moſtly inhabited by the Diogenes crab. Common land crabs were in great plenty, and ſea-birds of every kind, common to tropical Latitudes, in the Atlantic, were in great abundance here; particularly the Saint Helena pigeon, and white-headed noddy. They all perched on trees, like land-birds; and, at a ſmall diſtance, gave the tree on which they ſat, the appearance of being covered with white bloſſoms. Of the land-birds, we ſaw