I Was Much Struck By The Peculiarity Of Some Of The Waggons, Which Consisted Of Wooden Two-Wheeled Cars, Roofed With Palm Leaves Stretching Out About Four Feet, Before And Behind, Beyond The Body Of The Car.

These projections serve to protect the driver from the rain and the rays of the sun, whichever way they

May chance to fall. The oxen, of which there was always only a pair, were yoked at such a distance from the waggon, that the driver could walk very conveniently in the intervening space.

I profited by the half-hour allowed for breakfast to proceed to the sea-shore, whence I observed a number of men busily employed on the dangerous rock in the middle of the most violent breakers. Some of them loosened, by the aid of long poles, oysters, mussels, etc., from the rocks, while others dived down to the bottom to fetch them up. I concluded that there must be pearls contained inside, for I could not suppose that human beings would encounter such risks for the sake of the fish alone; and yet this was the case, for I found, later, that though the same means are employed in fishing for pearls, it is on the eastern coast and only during the months of February and March.

The boats employed by these individuals were of two kinds. The larger ones, which contained about forty persons, were very broad, and composed of boards joined together and fastened with the fibres of the cocoa-tree; the smaller ones were exactly like those I saw in Tahiti, save that they appeared still more dangerous.

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Words from 72947 to 73217 of 187810