ped,
although we might not discover a stream--which from the size of the
island was unlikely--we might find a spring, or ground by digging into
which fresh water might be reached. As soon, therefore, as we had
breakfasted we set off. As we had pulled along it the previous day we
calculated that the island was between three and four miles long and
about two miles broad.

Besides our guns we each carried a long bamboo stick, one end pointed
and the other formed like a gouge to serve as a spade, with which we
might dig for water, should we fail to find a stream.

So thick was the jungle immediately at the back of the cove that we had
to proceed along the shore some distance before we could make our way
inland. In several places we found it lined with the pandanus or screw
palm, which looks as if it had branches at both ends, the lower being
the roots which had lifted the trunk into the air. In other places
there were cocoa-nut trees with nuts hanging from them, so we knew that
even were we to be kept there many weeks we should have an ample supply
of vegetable diet.

"We shall find other food too," said Blyth, pointing to some trees which
grew in a hollow at the foot of a hill. "Those are sago trees; if hard
pressed we might manufacture sufficient sago from them to last us for
months, or even years. They require moisture, and I have little doubt
that by digging we shall find water not far from their roots. But we
will search further, perhaps we may discover a spring which will give us
a more ample supply, so that there is no fear of our starving. What a
number of birds there are! Many of them, too are birds of paradise. I
cannot tell you their names, but they seem to be the same as are found
in the Aru islands away to the southward. We shall have no difficulty
in shooting them, or some of those magnificent pigeons when we want
them, but it would be a pity to expend our ammunition unnecessarily. We
can kill a few as we return to serve us for dinner."

The whole of the island indeed appeared to be a perfect garden, and yet,
as far as we could discover, not a single inhabitant did it contain. We
made our way on, not without great difficulty, sometimes having to cut a
passage for ourselves through the underwood until we reached the
southern end, or rather western shore, where we could see the ocean
still covered over with raging foam-topped seas, which made us fear that
for many days to come our friends could