Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/369

] I found on the banks of several rivulets, were fragments of rocks of quartz mixed with mica, and frequently of a sort of free stone, which likewise consisted of quartzose particles.

Birds, especially parrots, are so numerous in this island, that it probably derives from this circumstance its name, which signifies in the Malayan language, a bird.

The woods afford such abundance of deer, goats and wild boars, that the natives can furnish the Resident with as many as he has occasion for, at the rate of two musket shots fired at each. The species of boar called babi-roussa (sus babyrussa), is also found here.

The natives seemed to be much afraid of several kinds of snakes, which they told us were very numerous in their island; but during the whole of our stay in this place, which I spent almost entirely in rambling through the woods, I never met with one of these reptiles.

Although the rainy season had not yet set in, violent storms blew almost every night from the high mountains.

Upon sounding the bay, we discovered at its entrance, a little on this side of the east point, called Point Rouba, a shelf of rocks, at a depth of not more than a fathom throughout an extent of about 2,000 toises; but the rest of this spacious