large sharks on this part of the coast, and he, as well as the French,
found the sea near the shore swarming with sea-snakes, the largest
about nine or ten feet long. Captain Stirling's party procured three
or four different kinds of good esculent fish; one in particular, a
species of rock-cod, is described as excellent.

"The bottom of the sea," says Captain Stirling, "is composed of
calcareous sand, sometimes passing into marl or clay. On this may be
seen growing an endless variety of marine plants, which appear to form
the haunts and perhaps the sustenance of quantities of small fish.
When it is considered that the bank extends a hundred miles from the
shore, and that wherever the bottom is seen, it presents a moving
picture of various animals gliding over the green surface of the
vegetation, it is not too much to look forward to the time when a
valuable fishery may be established on these shores. Even now, a boat
with one or two men might be filled in a few hours."

The island of Buache is admirably adapted for a fishing town. The
anchorage close to its eastern shore in Cockburn Island is protected
against all winds; and the island itself, of six or seven thousand
acres, of a light sort of sand and loam, is well suited, as Mr. Fraser
thinks, for any description of light garden crops. The side next the
sea is fenced by a natural dyke of limestone, coveted with cypress,
and in many places with an arborescent species of Metrosideros; and
all the valleys are clothed with a gigantic species of Solanum, and a
beautiful Brownonia. The soil in these thickets is a rich brown loam
intermixed with blocks of limestone, and susceptible, Mr. Fraser says,
of producing any description of crop. Fresh water may be had in all
these valleys by digging to the depth of two feet. On this island
Captain Stirling caused a garden to be planted and railed out; on