Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/71

65 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO N. W. AMERICA. 65 on board impatient to pay a visit to the far famed island. 17th. To-day we landed in a small bay on the north- ern extremity of the island, & the botanists & sailors of our party were equally anxious to satisfy their curiosity. The place we landed in more resembled a European corn field than a desolate vall[e]y in the Pacific Ocean. The level ground near the shore was entirely overgrown with oats interspersed with a species of carduus & a few wild carrot, D. carota. On penetrating through this field we discovered a small cavern excavated from the decompos- ing rock & having evident traces of having been recently inhabited. We here found a pair of goatskin shoes and a sort of lamp suspended from the roof of the cavern ; & the number of bones & horns scattered about, showed that there was no scarcity of cattle on the island. On proceed- ing a little to the eastward of this cavern which our sail- ors were certain had belonged to Robinson Crusoe, our curiosity was amply recompensed [by] a beautifull'exam- ple of romantic scenery. A natural elliptic arch about seven feet in height, admitted us to a small bay, bounded on all sides by steap perpendicular rocks against whose bases the waves maintained a perpetual conflict. Its steap & almost inaccessible crags afforded a secure retreat to the sea fowl that resort thither to deposite their eggs. These rocks are of a volcanic nature & contain interspersed through them many minute crystals perhaps olivine. In this wild retreat I picked up sponges of which a consid- erable portion had been washed ashore ; we also succeeded in detaching by means of long sticks a fine species of Spergula which adhered to the surface of the rocks. Having now satisfied our curiosity respecting the shore, we betook ourselves to the vall[e]y in expectation of find- ing some more plants. Here we found a streamlet of ex- cellent water, which was first detected by its rippling; as its surface was entirely concealed from our notice by the