described?"

"Better, ever so much," said Jack excitedly; "but please don't talk to
me now. There is so much to see, I want to look about me. It is all so
fresh and beautiful. But are there cocoa-nut trees?"

"Yes, of all sizes, from little ones a year old, to old ones in full
bearing. There they are."

"But I thought cocoanuts grew on a sort of palm-tree which went up from
the ground as straight as an arrow."

"No: never. The cocoa-nut sapling springs up with a beautiful curve
like you see yonder, all alike, and no matter how the wind blows they
keep to it, bending down and springing up again as if they were made of
whalebone. They get it badly though when there is a hurricane; scarcely
anything can stand that. But look down."

"Look down?"

"Yes, into the sea. You must not pass that over."

The boy glanced over the side of the boat, as the men rowed gently
across the lagoon, to find that they had gradually come into a shallow
part, whose waters, save for the disturbance made by the boat's passing,
were perfectly calm and of crystal clearness. As they neared the sandy
shore, the bottom, by the refraction, seemed to come nearer and nearer
to the surface, through which he sat gazing into one of Nature's
loveliest aquaria, strewn with the most wondrous corals and madrepores,
not dry, harsh, and stony, but glowing in colours imparted by the many
creatures which covered them. The seaweeds were exquisite, and the
flowers of this submarine garden were sea anemones of wondrous tints,
some closed like buds, others open wide, aster-like, and as bright in
tint, but with a slow, creeping movement of their petal-like arms, as
some unfortunate water creature touched them and was drawn into the
central mouth.

Shell-fish too of wondrous forms lay or crept about in the grottoes of
coral rock. Some were anchored oyster-like, and of gigantic size, lying
as traps with shells apart, like the mouth of some terrible monster
lying hidden among the weeds; others with strange, striped shells
crawled snail-like over the bottom, amidst many so small that they were
mere specks. And all the while, as the boat glided on over the surface,
there were flashes of gold, silver, ruby, topaz, sapphire, and amethyst,
for shoals of fish, startled by their coming, darted through the sunlit
water, to hide in the waving groves of sea-weed, or nestle down among
the coral stones.

"Stop rowing, please," said Sir John suddenly; and Jack t