Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/311

] skins, and as smooth as if they were coated with the finest varnish. Those suffer no inconvenience from the great rains to which they are constantly exposed, and they wait patiently in the middle of their net, for the insects which form their prey.

Among those spiders, I found some, the bodies of which terminated in points: the aranea aculeata, and the aranea spinosa.

The island of Laig, being much less than that of Cocos, presents fewer productions. The land of it is of the same nature, but much less elevated.

The precipitous mountains of New Ireland, which border upon Carteret harbour, are at least, three times as high as those of the island of Cocos. The marine productions, of which they are partly composed, are observable, in the same manner, even on their summits.

On the 23d I landed on New Ireland, N.N.W. of the anchoring place, and near the place whence our ship received her water. The stream which furnished it, was visible only near the sea. Farther inland, we saw the channel of a torrent, along which, in different places, were cavities filled with water, which filtrating through the sand, formed the little brook which supplied the watering-place. After an hour's walk along its banks, we came to a beautiful cascade, which it