182

ciety.

of Rosa de Tivoli, whose back grounds shells. In these thin strata the remains cess of his project, for moving boats are in a style of great freedom, and are are much less perfect than in those containing travellers and baggage by the at the same time bold and wild. In which contain fewer of them; and their same elastic agent, opened the way to concluding these brief remarks on the substance is so extremely tender, that its employment for carrying warriors different styles of landscape, we are ful- it is very difficult to obtain a specimen and the apparatus for fighting. The ly aware they must fall short of what which does not break to pieces imme- plan was submitted to the consideration might be said upon the subject at large; diately. Such parts of the rock, though, of the executive of an enlightened gobut we are also satisfied, that only an of course, unfit for building, are not vernment. Congress, influenced by the acquaintance with the works of the dif- useless; but are broken down, and in most liberal and patriotic spirit, approferent masters can be adequate to the that state conveyed by the Meuse to priated money for the experiment; and purpose of knowing their styles. And Holland, as a manure for the meadow the navy department, then conducted we rather offer these hints as tending land. The whole of these beds, from by the Honourable William Jones, apto show the various modes of arriving the chalk to the top of the hill, are se- pointed commissioners to superintend at the same end, and the different qua- parated from each other by beds of the construction of a convenient vessel lities belonging to and distinguishing flints, which exactly resemble those under the direction of Robert Fulton, one style of art from another. found in the chalk; presenting, like Esq. the inventor, as engineer, and of them, the usual appearance of having Messrs. Adam and Noah Brown, as naNATURAL PHILOSOPHY. been formed on corallines, &c. The val constructors. By the exemplary beds of flints in the chalk and lower combination of diligence and skill, on Geological Remarks on the Vicinity of Maestricht; strata of freestone, as has been mention- the part of the engineer and the conby the Rev. W. E. Honey, fellow of Exeter-ed, are at a distance from each other of structors, the business was so acceleratcollege, Oxford, member of the Geological So- not more than two or three feet; but, ed, that the vessel was launched on the as you ascend, the distance between 29th of October, amidst the plaudits of THE mountain of St. Pierre commences them is greater; and, towards the upper an unusual number of citizens. Meaabout a mile south from the town of part of the hill, is as much as eight or sures were immediately taken to comMaestricht, and extends in a direction ten feet. These flints frequently con- plete her equipment; the boiler, the towards Liege for nearly three leagues. tain organic remains: of these the most engine, and the machinery, were put It is an insulated hill, forming a ridge, common is the belemnite; shells also on board with all possible expedition. the sides of which are for the most part and silicified wood are not uncommon. Their weight and size far surpassed any very steep. The subterraneous quarries The height of the hill above the Meuse thing that had been witnessed before must have been worked from a very is, I should imagine, about 150 feet. among us. She was a structure resting early period, and are said to extend To the eye the strata appear to be per-upon two boats, and keels separated through its whole length. The hill pre-fectly horizontal. As, however, I found from end to end by a canal fifteen feet sents an almost perpendicular escarp- the chalk gradually rising as I proceed-wide and 156 long. One boat containment towards the Meuse; and it is in ed in a direction nearly south, it is pro-ed the cauldrons of copper to prepare walking on this side of it that the strata bable that there may be a very slight the steam. The vast cylinder of iron, are seen to the greatest advantage. A- inclination towards the north. My stay with its piston, lever, and wheels, occubout a league from Maestricht you ob- was too short to enable me to give any pied a part of its fellow; the great watertain a good section of the lower beds of account of the numerous fossils of this wheel revolved in the space between the hill, and these are decidedly chalk, rock. I may, however, mention, that them; the main or gun deck supported containing beds of flint-nodules, from those which I found most common were her armament, and was protected by a two to three feet distant from each other. various species of corallines and madre- bulwark four feet ten inches thick, of The chalk appears to contain fewer fos- pores, (particularly the fungites); be- solid timber. This was pierced by thirty sils than that which we have in this lemnites; numulites; several species of port holes, to enable as many thirty-two country; but, in the nature of these fos-echini, amongst others a small one, hav-pounders to fire red-hot balls; her upsils, and in every other respect, com- ing the mouth in the centre of the base per or spar deck was plain, and she was pletely resembles it. Above these are and vent lateral; several kinds of oys-to be propelled by her enginery alone. beds resembling the chalk in colour, ters and pectines. I was also fortunate It was the opinion of Captain Porter but more hard and gritty to the touch. enough to find a very beautiful baculites, Above these again lie a succession of beds of the calcareous freestone, of which the mass of the hill is composed; and it is in these that the quarries are situated. This stone is of a yellowish colour, and so extremely soft in the quarry that

with turreted articulations.

and Mr. Fulton, that the upper deck ought to be surrounded with a bulwark and stanchions-that two stout masts Report of the Commissioners appointed to should be erected to support latteen sails that there should be bowsprits for build a Steam Frigate at New York. jibs, and that she should be rigged in a IT was conceived, by a most inge- corresponding style. At length all matmay be cut with a knife: it becomes nious and enterprising citizen, that the ters were ready for a trial of the mahowever of a lighter colour, and more power of steam could be employed to chinery to urge such a bulky vessel hard, by exposure to the air. Here and propel a floating battery, carrying heavy through the water. This essay was made there is found a thin stratum complete- guns, to the destruction of any hostile on the first day of June 1815. She ly made up of fragments of marine sub-force that should hover on the shores, proved herself capable of opposing the stances; these are chiefly species of co- or enter the ports, of our Atlantic fron-wind and of stemming the tide, of crossrallines and madrepores, mixed with tier. The perfect and admirable sucing currents and of being steered among

it

Stone.

A.

183

A Whin-Dike cut by a Stratum of Lime- may probably become very conspicuous; at present, making so small an angle with the earth and the sun, and so near the plane of the ecliptic, it cannot be expected to exhibit more than a very small train."—In a note of the 17th, he says, "Of the comet I have thus much farther to observe, that, when discovered

HAPPENING lately to make some stay at Edinburgh, and strolling across the fields about two miles and a-half to the eastward, I came to a farm-house called East-field, on Mr. Knox's new map of

vessels riding at anchor, though the was found to make head-way at the rate coal-field. I shall be glad to see the weather was boisterous and the water of two miles an hour against the ebb of singular facts I have mentioned further rough. Her performance demonstrat- the East River, running three and one-investigated, and the bearing which they ed, that the project was successful-no half knots. The day's exercise was sa- have on certain geological theories, disdoubt remained that a floating battery, tisfactory to the respectable company cussed in your pages. composed of heavy artillery, could be who attended, beyond their utmost exmoved by steam. The commissioners pectations. It was universally agreed, Mr. Lofft, in a letter to the editor returned from the exercise of the day, that we now possessed a new auxiliary of the Monthly Magazine, observes, I satisfied that the vessel would answer against every maritime invader. The notice a comet, of which I had heard the intended purpose, and consoled city of New York, exposed as it is, was something some days before, lest it themselves that their care had been be- considered as having the means of ren- should have escaped your observation. stowed upon a worthy object. But it dering itself invulnerable. The Dela- Having been seen at Bremen, Nov. 1. was discovered that various alterations ware, the Chesapeake, Long Island | 7h. 14', with R. A. 253° 14'. N. D. 8° were necessary. Guided by the light sound, and every other bay and harbour nearly, it is obviously situated very faof experience, they caused some errors in the nation, may be protected by the vourably for observation, though on the to be corrected, and some defects to be same tremendous power. opposite side of the earth's orbit. Its supplied. She was prepared for a sedirection being said to be westward, it cond voyage with all practicable speed. On the 4th day of July she was again put in action. She performed a trip to the ocean, eastward of Sandy-hook, and back again, a distance of fifty-three miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes. A part of this time she had the tide against her, and had no assistance whatever from sails. Of the gentlemen Edinburghshire: it is near to Niddry by Professor Olbers, it appears to have who formed the company invited to burn, close to which is a quarry, where formed with Aquila, the two points of witness the experiment, not one enter- a basalt or whin-dike is dug into, for a nearly isosceles triangle, of which tained a doubt of her fitness for the in- the roads, to the depth of seventeen or Lyra was the vertex; and to have been tended purpose. Additional experiments eighteen feet, pointing towards Niddry distant from Aquila about '58°,—from were, notwithstanding, necessary to be steam-engine and Brunston-house; and Lyra aboat 40. By the descent it sought, for quickening and directing at the end of this quarry, there crosses, seems that it is direct. her motion. These were devised and almost at right angles to the dike, a The construction and properties of executed with all possible care. Suita stratum of lime-stone, of a few feet thick, Bramah's Patent Lock, in which the conble arrangements having been made, a almost in a vertical position, but dip-fidence of the public has so long rethird trial of her powers was attempted ping towards the E., which appears posed, having become a subject of dison the 11th day of September, with the absolutely to intercept or stop the cussion' at the meetings of the Royal Inweight of twenty-six of her long and progress of the whin-dike; although, stitution, Mr. Bramah attended, and ponderous guns, and a considerable perhaps, the dike may be found again lent a large model explanatory of the quantity of ammunition and stores on beyond it, if the ground were opened. principles of his late father's lock, and board; her draft of water was short of I beg to call the attention of geologists his own improvements upon it, to the eleven feet. She changed her course, to its careful re-examination, and to the institution; when every one was satisby inverting the motion of the wheels, causing of such an opening to be made fied with the almost utter impossibility without the necessity of putting about. through the lime-stone, as shall fully of opening locks upon his construction, She fired salutes as she passed the forts, ascertain all the circumstances attending their security depending upon the docand she overcame the resistance of wind this singular case, to a sufficient depth trine of combinations or multiplication and tide in her progress down the bay. beneath the surface: to me it appeared, of numbers into each other, which is She performed beautiful manoeuvres that no change whatever, either of the known to increase in the most rapid around the United States frigate Java, quality or state of the basalt, or the lime- proportion. Thus a lock of five sliders then at anchor near the light-house. She stone, were visible, in their approach to admits of 3000 variations, while one of moved with remarkable celerity, and she a junction with each other: the lime- eight, which are commonly made, will was perfectly obedient to her double stone is clearly not a more modern dike have no less than 1,935,360 changes, or, helm. It was observed, that the explo-crossing that of basalt, as some persons in other words, that number of attempts sions of powder produced very little con- may be ready to couclude, but is, as 1 at making a key, or at picking it, may cussion. The machinery was not affect was assured by the colliers of the vici- be made, before it can be opened. Such ed by it in the smallest degree. Her nity to the eastward, of whom I in- was the case in the lifetime of its late progress, during the firing, was steady quired, one of those regular strata of ingenious inventor; but, by the simple and uninterrupted. On the most accu- lime-stone which Mr. Williams has men-improvement of his sons, the present marate calculations, derived from heaving tioned in his "Mineral Kingdom," se-nufacturers, this difficulty may be inthe log, her average velocity was five cond edition, vol. i, pages 68 and 104, creased in an hundred fold, or greater and one-half miles per hour. Notwith- as interstratified with the lower of the proportion, without at all adding to the standing the resistance of currents, she numerous coal-seams of the Midlothian complication of the lock.

184

LITERATURE.

MR. C. PHILLIPS, the eloquent barister, has in the press, a Life of his friend, the Right Hon. JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN, in a quarto volume, embellished with a portrait. This work will comprise an account of the legal, political, and private life of Mr. Curran; together with anecdotes and characters of his most distinguished contemporaries, many of them collected from his own lips.

Natural Philosophy.-Literature.

The Letters from the Hon. Hor. Wal-in Great Britain, &c. pole, to George Montagu, Esq. from the year 1736 to 1770, will soon be published from the originals, in the possession of the editor.

[December 20, 1817.

to all connected with these institutions, A new and interesting book for childentitled, "Annals of Banks for Savings." ren, translated from the French of Part the first, containing details of the Jauffrett, author of the Travels of Rorise and progress of those institutions; lando, &c. will be published in a few observations on their importance, ten-days, entitled, a Day's Instructive Exdency, and constitution; an account of cursion; or, a Father's First Lessons; the earliest establishments of this de- consisting of the first elements of useful scription; full particulars for their form- knowledge, &c. embellished with five ation, management, &c.; methods of beautiful engravings. An edition in keeping accounts and calculating inte- French, revised, corrected, and imrest; useful hints and suggestions; and proved, is also in the press. communications from the principal banks John Millington, Esq. lecturerer on mechanical subjects in the Royal Insti Capt. M'Konochie, royal navy, is pre-tution for the three last seasons, has been paring for the press, a Summary View appointed Professor of Mechanics, and of the Statistics and existing Commerce the various instruments and machines of the Principal Shores of the Pacific connected with this department have Lieut.-Colonel Johnston is preparing Ocean; with a detail of the most pro- been placed under his care and superinfor publication, a Narrative of an Over- minent advantages which would seem tendence. He has particularly directed land Journey from India, performed in connected with the establishment of a his attention to the supply of all those the course of the present year, through central colony within its limits. To deficiencies which have arisen from the the principal cities of Persia, part of this, Capt. M. proposes to subjoin par- want of sufficient funds, and the want Armenia, Georgia, over the Caucasus ticulars of a plan for facilitating, gene- of a permanent person, sufficiently versed into Russia, through the territory inha- ally, the communication between the in the actual manipulations of art, to inbited by the Cossacks of the Don, to whole southern hemisphere, and the struct and explain them, and bring them Warsaw, and thence through Berlin to northern or atlantic parts; with a re-into a state of useful activity. Hamburgh. The works will be accom-view of the consequences, political and panied with engravings illustrative of commercial, which would seem connect- Sentiment, by Anna and Annabella the more remarkable antiquities in those ed with the adoption of this proposal. Plumptre, in three duodecimo volumes, countries, the costume of the inhabit- The book will be illustrated by a skele- are nearly ready. ants, and other interesting subjects, from ton chart; and the whole will be com A new edition of Mr. Stevens's Indrawings executed in the course of the prised within the limits of a small octa-quiry into the Abuses of the Chartered journey. vo volume. Schools in Ireland, with remarks on the Education of the Lower Classes in that Country, is in the press, and will be published in December.

Mr. Nichols will shortly publish in Madame de Stael's new work on the two vols. 8vo, a new edition of the Life French Revolution has been purchased and Errors of John Dunton, citizen of by Messrs. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy; London; with the lives and characters it will be printed both in French and of more than one thousand contempora- English, under the superintendence of ry divines, and other persons of literary Mr. William Schlegel, the literary exeeminence to which will be added, Dun-cutor of the baroness. The work will ton's Conversations in Ireland; selec- be comprised in three octavo volumes, tions from his other genuine works, and and will appear in London and at Paris portrait of the author. on the same day.

Tales of Wonder, of Humour, and of

The Rev. Daniel Tyerman, of Newport, Isle of Wight, is printing a volume of Essays on the Wisdom of God; which may be expected to appear soon after Christmas.

The Rev. Robert Burnside has in the press, in two octavo volumes, a series of essays on the Religion of Mankind.

A second edition is preparing for the press, by Mr. Mackenzie, corrected and enlarged, of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of John Calvin.

Dr. James Johnson is preparing, in Mr. Asbury has invented an instruan octavo volume, an Essay on the Pro- ment for puncturing the drum of the longation of Life and Conservation of ear, in cases of deafness; and two inHealth; translated from the French of stances are recorded in which he has opeMM. Gilbert and Halle. rated successfully; the individuals were Mr. Hooker has likewise the first immediately restored to hearing. Will Mr. Matchett, of Norwich, is prenumber of a work ready for publication, the operation be permanently beneficial? paring a Topographical Dictionary of on the new and rare, or little known, Mr. A. T. Thomson is preparing a the County of Norfolk, to be comprised Exotic Cryptogamic plants: with which second edition of the London Dispensa- in a large octavo volume, embellished will be incorporated those collected in tory, which will contain all the improve- with maps and views. South America, by Messrs. Humboldt ments in pharmaceutical chemistry, and and Bonpland; and various other in- the alterations that have taken place in teresting subjects, in the possession of the British Pharmacopoeias, since its the author and his botanical friends. first appearance; and also synonymes of This will have numerous plates, and ap the names of the articles of the Materia pears in an octavo form. Medica, and the preparations in the French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Hindostanèe languages. This work is already in the press.

A new work on the subject of Saving Banks, will shortly make its appearance, which will be found particularly useful

A Biographical View of the Publie and Private Life of the Princess Charlotte, will appear in a few days.

A Copious Plan of the City of Bris tol and its Suburbs; with Illustrative Sections; is preparing for publication by J. Plumley, land-surveyor, under the patronage of the mayor and corpo ration.

1

December 20, 1817.]

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson's Bay in his Majesty's ship Rosamond, containing some account of the NorthEastern Coast of America, and of the tribes inhabiting that remote region. By Lieut. Edward Chappell.

THE Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated by charter in the year 1670, for the purpose of carrying on an exclusive trade to the Bay visited by Lieut. Chappell. Exclu. sive enough it has certainly been, as it respects the extension of our geographical knowledge: nor, until the recent disputes between Lord Selkirk, who is a large holder of property in this company, and some rival traders, did the public know any thing about it, or the territory which has become the subject of dispute. We opened this volume in the hope of finding some information, and have been highly gratified with the useful intelligence it conveys, in à modest and unassuming manner.

Chappell's Voyage to Hudson's Bay.

and comfort. Though neither foxes nor hares
are to be found on these islands, rabbits are
very numerous; and the quantities of grouse,
plover, partridges, and other game, are asto-

nishing.

185

be seen; their mouths are wide, and their teeth white and regular: the complexion is a dusky yellow, but some of the young women have a little colour bursting through this dark

tint: the noses of the men are rather flattened, On the 29th of June the Rosamond and her but those of the women are sometimes even convoy set sail from the Orkneys; and on the prominent. The males are, generally speak28th of the following month they saw the ing, between five feet five inches and five feet island of Cape Resolution. As they approach-eight inches high; bony, and broad shouldered this island, they passed several ice bergs, ed; but do not appear to possess much musor mountains of ice. At length they reached cular strength. The flesh of all the Esquimaux Cape Saddleback, off which they were visited feels soft and flabby, which may be attributed by the Esquimaux, a singular race of people, to the nature of their food. But the most inhabiting the shores of Hudson's and Davis' surprising peculiarity of this people is the Straits, the northern part of Hudson's Bay, smallness of their hands and feet: which is and both sides of the vast peninsula of Labra-not occasioned, as in China, by compression, dor. These people, who had been anxiously nor by any other artificial means, as their waiting for the arrival of the ships, immedi-boots and gloves are made large, and of soft ately pushed off in their canoes to meet and seal's-skin. To their continual employment traffic with them. It seems that the annual in canoes on the water, and to the sitting posfair, for disposing of their little manufactures ture they are thus obliged to preserve, perof dresses, spears, &c. which they exchange haps their diminutive feet might be ascribed: for knives, needles, picces of metal, and simi- but when we reflect on the laborious life they lar articles, of prime necessity with them. must necessarily lead, and yet find that their The canoes of the Esquimaux are described hands are equally small with their feet, it as being of a most curious construction: will naturally lead us to the conclusion, that The work is introduced by a preface from These were built of a wooden frame-work the same intense cold which restricts vegetathe celebrated traveller Dr. E. D. Clarke, of the lightest materials, covered with oiled tion to the forms of creeping shrubs, has also through whom Lieut. Chappell had presented seal-skin, with the hair scraped off; the skin its effect upon the growth of mankind, preto the university of Cambridge a valuable col- being sewed over the frame with the most venting the extremities from attaining their lection of the dresses, weapons, &c. of the astonishing exactness, and as tight as parch-due proportion. Indians inhabiting Hudson's Bay, and atment upon the head of a drum. But the most The chin, cheek-bones, and forehead, among whose request the narrative has been given to surprising peculiarity of the canoes was their the women, are tattooed; and this operation is the public. To its accuracy Dr. C. gives his being twenty-two feet long, and only two feet performed among the Esquimaux by pricking unqualified testimony, and has added an inter-wide. There was but one opening in the through the skin with some sharp pointed inesting statement of the author's naval career. centre, sufficiently large to admit the entrance strument, and rubbing ashes into the wound: Towards the close of May 1814, the Rosa- of a man; and out of this hole projected the as the marks are not deep, their appearance is mond took under her convoy the two ships of body of the Esquimaux, visible only from the not disagreeable. I imagine that the tattoothe Hudson's Bay traders, accompanied by a ribs upwards. The paddle is held in the hand, ing does not take place until the female arbrig belonging to the Moravian Missionary by the middle; and it has a blade at each end, rives at the age of puberty, because the Society, which was bound for the coast of La- curiously veneered at the edges, with slips of youngest girls were without any such marks. brador. Agreeably to the rule of the Hudson's a sea-unicorn's horn. On the top of the canoe None of the men undergo the operation; Bay Company, their ships broke ground on were fastened strips of sea-horses' hide, to but they have a few straggling hairs on the the 29th of May, and proceeded from the confine the lance and harpoon; and behind chin and upper lip, while the women carefully Nore to the Orkney Islands. On casting an- the Esquimaux were large lumps of whale remove them from every part of the body, chor at Stromness, in the Island of Pomona, blubber, for the purposes of barter. These excepting the head, where they have a lock on the principal of the Orkneys, their arrival was canoes are only capable of containing one per-each temple, neatly braided, and bound with announced by a discharge of cannon-a wel- son, for any useful purpose; the slightest in- a thong of hide. On the back of the head, come signal to the inhabitants, almost every clination of the body, on either side, will ine- the hair is turned up, much after the fashion one of whom is interested in the visits of the vitably overturn them; yet in these frail barks of the English ladies. I hope the latter will North-West Men, for so they denominate the will the Esquimaux smile at the roughest sea; not be offended at the comparison. Hudson's Bay ships. These visits, it seems, and in smooth water they can, with ease, create a kind of annual mart or fair in the travel seven miles an hour. Orkneys; as it is from hence that their crews The Esquimaux have hitherto been known derive all necessary supplies of provisions, to Europeans only, or at least principally, water, and even men, to fit them for so long from the accounts collected by the Abbé Raya voyage. The sketch, which Mr. Chappell nal, which are in many respects extremely gives of the domestic and rural economy of defective and erroneous. According to him, the Orkneys, does not present the most de- scarcely any of these people exceed four feet lightful picture of that remote part of the in height; their heads bear the same enorBritish dominions. The town of Stromness is mous proportion to their bodies as those of an irregular assemblage of dirty huts, inter-children; and they have neither hair nor spersed with a very few decent houses. There beard! Instead, however, of being the dwarfis scarcely any thing deserving the name of a street in the place, though it is said to contain a population of two thousand souls. The harbour is small, but very secure; and the total want of firewood on the island is amply com-genuity, and courage. On this subject our pensated by the abundance of cheap Newcastle coal, which is sent thither in exchange for the kelp, the chief produce of the Orkneys, exported from Stromness Partly from idleness, and partly from want of manure, agriculture is in a very low state; and the habitations of the farmers presented any thing but cleanliness

After having gone so far in a description of their persons, perhaps their diet ought not to be overlooked; because it has been before noticed, that the relaxed state of their flesh, and the sallow hue of their complexions, may in a great measure be ascribed to the nature of their food. As they seem to devour every thing raw, it has been conjectured that they are unacquainted with the use of fire; but this is not true. I observed, near one of their huts, a circle of loose stones, containing the ashes of a recently extinguished fire, and a ish and degraded race, as the Abbé proceeds stone kettle standing upon it: also, in a hut, to describe them to be, Mr. Chappell shews, by I saw a pan of vegetables, resembling spinach, the best of all evidence, the testimony of facts, which had been boiled into the consistency of that they are really possessed of industry, in-paste. Yet, after all, it is no less certain that an Esquimaux prefers all flesh raw. In author shall speak for himself. proof of this it may be mentioned, that the commander of the Eddystone, a Hudson's Bay ship, having shot a sea-gull, an Indian made signs that he wished for the bird: immediately on receiving it, he sucked away the blood that flowed from its mouth; then, hastily plucking off the feathers, he instantly dispatched the

The male Esquimaux have rather a prepossessing physiognomy, but with very high cheek bones, broad foreheads, and small eyes, rather farther apart than those of an European: the corners of their eye-lids are drawn together so close, that none of the white is to

body, entrails, &c. with the most surprising like thunder over the ice; then appeared to | pidity, as if intending, by their fiery glare, to voracity. The knowledge which the Esqui- roll rumbling back towards the ship; bellow-shew to us the horrors of our situation, and maux possess of the use of fire, is observable ing forth again in tremendous peals. The then to magnify them by leaving us in utter in the ingenuity with which they transform echo died away in distant reverberation. iron nails, hoops, &c. into heads for their arrows, spears, and harpoons. May not their fondness for raw flesh have arisen from the scarcity of fuel? There was not a bit of wood to be found on that part of the coast where I landed.