The Highest Part Of The Island Of Lobos, As Seen
From The Road, Did Not Seem Much Higher Than The Top-Mast Head Of A
Large Ship.
The soil is a hungry white clayish earth, mixed with sand
and rocks; and there is no fresh water, nor any green thing to be seen
on either of the islands.
They are frequented by many vultures or
carrion crows, and looked so like turkeys that one of our officers was
rejoiced at the sight, expecting to fare sumptuously, and would not wait
till the boat could put him ashore, but leapt into the water with his
gun, and let fly at a parcel of them; but, when he came to take up his
game, it stunk most abominably, and made us merry at his expence. The
other birds here are pelicans, penguins, boobies, gulls, and one
resembling teal, which nestle in holes under ground. Our men got great
numbers of these birds, which they said were good meat after being
skinned.
We found abundance of bulrushes and empty jars, which the Spanish
fishers had left on shore; for all over this western coast of America,
they use earthen jars instead of casks, for containing oil, wine, and
all other liquids. There are here abundance of sea-lions and seals, the
latter being much larger than those we saw at Juan Fernandez, but their
fur not so fine. Our people killed several of these, on purpose to eat
their livers; but a Spaniard on board died suddenly after eating them,
and I forbade their use, and we learnt also from our prisoners that the
old seals are very unwholesome.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 573 of 825
Words from 155611 to 155886
of 224764
