lly spotted, which, when followed,
would raise themselves out of the water, and endeavour with an open
mouth to bite their pursuers. The other sorts were chiefly parrot-fish,
snappers, and a brown spotted rock-fish, about the size of a haddock, so
tame, that instead of swimming away, it would remain fixed and gaze at
us. Had we been in absolute want, a sufficient supply might have been
had; for thousands of the clams, already mentioned, stuck upon the reef,
some of which weighed two or three pounds. There were, besides, some
other sorts of shell-fish, particularly the large periwinkle. When the
tide flowed several sharks came in over the reef, some of which our
people killed, but they rendered it rather dangerous to walk in the
water at that time.

The party who were left on shore with Mr Williamson, were a good deal
pestered (as Mr Gore's had been) with musquitoes in the night. Some of
them, in their excursions, shot two curlews, exactly like those of
England, and saw some plovers, or sand-pipers, upon the shore; but in
the wood no other bird, besides one or two of the cuckoos that were seen
at Wenooa-ette.

Upon the whole, we did not spend our time unprofitably at this last
islet, for we got there about twelve hundred cocoa-nuts, which were
equally divided amongst the whole crew, and were, doubtless, of great
use to them, both on account of the juice and of the kernel. A ship,
therefore, passing this way, if the weather be moderate, may expect to
succeed as we did. But there is no water upon either of the islets where
we landed. Were that article to be had, and a passage could be got into
the lake, as we may call it, surrounded by the reef, where a ship could
anchor, I should prefer this to any of the inhabited islands, if the
only want were refreshment. For the quantity of fish that might be
procured would be sufficient, and the people might roam about unmolested
by the petulance of any inhabitants.

The nine or ten low islets, comprehended under the name of Palmerston's
Island, may be reckoned the heads or summits of the reef of coral rock
that connects them together, covered only with a thin coat of sand, yet
clothed, as already observed, with trees and plants, most of which are
of the same sorts that are found on the low grounds of the high islands
of this ocean.

There are different opinions amongst ingenious theorists concerning the
formation of such low islands as Palmerston's. Some will have it, that
in r