Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/386

358 white, was there in some cases tinged by the green steatite, and in others by iron, which gave it the colour of rust. Mica was there disseminated in a very uniform manner, and we found schorl of a black colour, in minute slender fragments.

While we were employed in collecting objects of natural history, our guides took the opportunity of providing themselves with a repast of a species of crab (cancer carinus), with which this little river abounds. Their manner of catching them gave us a good opinion of their ingenuity.

This crab commonly seeks its food in the clearest water, which it slowly traverses, but the instant it is approached, it moves off with extreme rapidity. The islanders, however, managed to catch a great number of them by the eyes. Having tied to the end of a wand a horse hair with a noose, they render themselves masters of the animal by passing this noose over the basis of the spherical part of the eye. When they miss their aim, the crab seldom fails to return, and in the end is almost always taken.

Having early consumed all our provisions, we hoped to find some natives towards the latter part of the day, who would sell us some. It was about three in the afternoon, when we advanced confidently towards a small house, near the bank of the river. But what was our astonishment, when,