foot to give much chance of getting a shot at
them.
Immediately at the foot of these mountains
(and they are nearly perpendicular) is a slip
of good land, gradually sloping down towards
the sea j but it is cut suddenly from the beach
by an abrupt precipice of about fifty feet; so
that from every part is a fine commanding
view of the ocean. This slip of land (between
the mountains and the beach) is three
quarters of a mile in width, and five or six
miles in length; nearly level, and (except
where the settlers have cleared a few acres) it
is covered with a thick underwood, and small
trees, all evergreens, easily cleared, and the
soil is capable of producing any kind of vegetable,
but particularly favourable for the
culture of potatoes, which are the finest I
ever tasted, and form the chief article of food
as well as traffic. From the Peak, in the
centre of the island, to the sea shore, the earth
is cut into gullies, apparently by torrents.
Those in the plains are deep, and cut straight
to the sea. Two of these gullies, which are
near our settlement, are, I should imagine,
fifty feet wide, and as many deep, filled with
huge masses of black lava. All the rocks on
the island are of the same dismal hue, which
gives a most melancholy aspect to all its
scenery. The settlers call these ravines
gultcheS.
9th.—Yesterday, the day being particularly
fine, Glass, his eldest son, and myself, took
the small boat, and pulled out about two miles
from land, and commenced fishing. There
being a great swell, our boat was terribly
knocked about, and the poor boy was too sick
to be able to render any assistance; but his
father and I caught a great number of large
fish called blue fish, weighing twenty or thirty
pounds each. Before we could return we
were caught in a squall; though, when we
set forth on our expedition, it was a beautiful,
calm, and clear morning; the weather here
changes so suddenly. As a proof of which,
Glass informed me, his wife once went off to
pay a visit on board a ship ; and while she was
there a gale sprung up, the vessel had to
stand off, and it was ten days before they
Y