Page:Colnett - Voyage to the South Pacific (IA cihm 33242).djvu/84

 their nets, and ome of them almot fledged. It may, however, be remarked, that this curious intinctive mode, of finding a ubtitute for water, is not peculiar, to the birds of this iland; as nature has provided them with a imilar reource in the fountain tree, that flourihes on the Ile Ferro, one of the Canaries; and everal other trees and canes, which, Churchill tells us in his voyages, are to be found, on the mountains of the Phillipine Ilands.

There is no tree in this iland, which meaures more than twelve inches in circumference, except the prickly pear, ome of which were three feet in girth, and fifty feet in height. The torch thitle, which was the next in height, contains a liquid in its heart, which the birds drank, when it was cut down. They ometimes, even extracted it from the young trees, by piercing the trunks with their bills.

We earched with great diligence for the mineral mountain, mentioned by Dampier, but were not o fortunate as to dicover it; unles it be that from which the heavy and or mall topazes were collected, and of which, I ordered a barrel to be filled, and brought it away.

This great rock, bearing from our anchoring place, South 43° Wet, makes the Eat point of a large bay, in which, I