ead of the peak. Wilde was of opinion that the island was
rich in minerals, traces of both iron and coal having been met with,
while outcrops of granite and a very beautiful marble, probably
exceedingly rich in lime, had also been encountered. This was the first
rough report of the explorers, given immediately upon their return to
the ship, which Wilde undertook to supplement in an address which he
proposed to deliver from the poop after supper.

Accordingly, at the conclusion of the meal, all hands, emigrants and
seamen alike, mustered in the waist and on the quarter-deck, finding
seats where they could, some of them on the rail with their feet resting
on the plank-sheer, some on the after hatch, and the rest on the deck
planks, while Polson, Tudsbery, Grace Hartley, and I disposed ourselves
upon the poop, near enough to hear all that was said; Wilde placing
himself in the centre of the fore end of the poop, where he could be
seen and heard by everybody. I am bound to admit that, as a speaker,
the ex-schoolmaster acquitted himself fairly well. His grammar was
unexceptionable, as might be reasonably expected; his choice of words
admirable, and his mode of expressing himself easy, yet precise; while
he seemed to have the gift of arranging the points of his subject
symmetrically, and in such a manner as instantly to catch and hold the
attention of his hearers. He began by recounting in detail the history
of the day's doings, describing the route taken, the nature of the
country passed over, and the various products met with. Some of his
descriptive passages dealing with the beauties of the scenery--the
loveliness of the wooded glens, each with its tiny streamlet flowing
over a rocky bed, with here and there a romantic, tree-shaded waterfall,
its jagged margin adorned with rich growths of rare and beautiful ferns;
the wide, park-like expanses of greensward dotted with magnificent
trees; the tangled brakes, gorgeous with strange and wonderful orchids
and flowering shrubs and creepers; the countless fruit-bearing trees and
shrubs loaded with luscious fruits and berries; the miles of coconut-
palms bordering the shore; the gaily-plumaged birds with their quaint
and sometimes discordant cries; the brilliant-winged butterflies--were
both picturesque and poetical. There were neither savages, ferocious
animals--or, indeed, animals of any kind--nor reptiles on the island, so
far as the explorers had been able to discover, he