Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/164

154 with the horizon. Farther to the outh I oberved horizontal layers of the ame kind of tone, from whence a mall rivulet dicharged itelf, in a cacade, into the ea. The rocks facing the ea were haped into a variety of thoe groteque figures, commonly termed luus naturæ. We oberved a light moke acending in puffs from a mall ubterraneous cavern at a little ditance from the hore; though we could not learn whether the forets had caught fire from ome conflagration in the bowels of the earth, or had been kindled intentionally by the inhabitants. I was informed at Ile de France, upon my return from the South Seas, that an American veel had left ome men at the ilands of Amterdam and St. Paul, for the purpoe of collecting oil from the fat of eals, which are very numerous on thoe coats. But though we watched very attentively to ee if any ignal was made for our aitance, we oberved no igns of the iland's being inhabited. At any rate it would have been impoible to put in there, as we could not have found an anchoring-place except to leeward of the iland, where we ran the rik of being uffocated by the moke. The mell of the moke eemed to how that it proceeded entirely from the combution of vegetables.

The mountains gradually diminih in height towards