This island is covered with a kind of bent grass, which want of rain, and the constant feeding of the few goats that are kept here, prevent from growing to any height. The end of the island, near the north cape, sounds very hollow, underneath, like Solfaterra, near Naples; and as quantities of pumice stones are found here, there is great appearance that the black hill was once a volcano. Several large shells from the fish called Bisser, some of them twenty inches long, are seen turned upon their faces, on the surface of large stones, of ten or twelve ton weight. These shells are sunk into the stones, as if they were into paste, and the stone raised round about, so as to conceal the edge of the shell; a proof that this stone has, some time lately, been soft or liquified. For, had it been long ago, the weather and sun would have worn the surface of the shell, but it seems perfectly entire, and is set in that hard brown rock, as the stone of a ring is in a golden chasing. The inhabitants of Foosht are poor fishermen, of the same degree of blackness as those between Heli and Djezan; like them too, they were naked, or had only a rag about their waist. Their faces are neither stained nor painted. They catch a quantity of fish called Seajan, which they carry to Loheia, and exchange for Dora and Indian corn, for they have no bread, but what is procured this way. They also have a flat fish, with a long tail to it, whose skin is a species of shagreen, with which the handles of knives and swords are made. Pearls too are found here, but neither large nor of a good water, on the other hand, they are not dear; they are the produce of various species of shells, all Bivalves[204]. The town consists of about thirty huts, built with faggots of bent grass or spartum, and these are supported within with a few sticks, and thatched with the grass, of which they are built. The inhabitants seemed to be much terrified at seeing us come a-shore all armed; this was not done out of fear of them, but, as we intended to stay on shore all night, we wished to be in a situation to defend ourselves against boats of strollers from the main. The saint, or Marabout, upon seeing me pass near him, fell flat upon his face, where he lay for a quarter of an hour; nor would he get up till the guns, which I was told had occasioned his fears, were ordered by me to be immediately sent on board. On the 7th, by an observation of the meridian altitude of the sun, I found the latitude of Foosht to be 15° 59´ 43´´ north. There are here many beautiful shell-fish; the concha veneris, of several sizes and colours, as also sea urchins, or sea-eggs. I found, particularly, one of the pentaphylloid kind, of a very particular form. Spunges of the common sort are likewise found all along this coast. The bearings and distances of the principal islands from Foosht are: