Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/306

282 We observed, floating along the shore, the fruits of several species of the pandanus, of the barringtonia speciosa, and of the heritiera, which stretched their branches, and even their trunks, in a very remarkable manner, over the waters of the sea.

Two of our men who followed me saw an alligator close to the shore, on the south-east extremity of the island of Cocos. But I do not believe that those animals are very common there; for, during the whole time that we lay at anchor, no accident happened, though a great number of our people were in the habit of bathing.

Near the eastern extremity of this little island, I observed several kinds of nautili, disseminated amidst the prodigious quantity of lithophites, which entered into its composition.

The abundance and continuance of the rains were astonishing. It was an incessant torrent of tepid water, which, however, did not hinder us from visiting the environs of the anchoring place.

I landed several days successively, on the islands of Cocos and Laig.

The number of insects of different forms and colours was truly astonishing; and the rains did not appear to diminish their activity. They were chiefly coleopteras, which it was difficult to catch. The