e the habitat of countless thousands of birds of strange and
most gorgeous plumage, among which I identified what I believed to be
three or four species of birds of paradise, as well as a great variety
of sun birds flitting from flower to flower like living gems. It is to
be admitted that the cries of those birds were not always in accord with
the splendour of their plumage, being for the most part distinctly harsh
and unmusical; but there was one exception that startled us not a little
when we first heard it. Its cry was an exact reproduction of the sound
of a sweet-toned bell, so exact, indeed, that for the moment I felt
fully persuaded that, hidden somewhere in the heart of that vast ocean
of greenery, there must be a monastery, or some such institution; and it
was not until we marked the irregular, intermittent character of the
sounds, and the fact that they emanated from frequently changing
localities, that we at length arrived at an explanation of the apparent
mystery.

While we were still discussing the matter the boat gently grounded upon
the dazzlingly white beach of coral sand, and we stepped out, securing
the boat by means of a grapnel attached to the end of a long painter,
digging the flukes of the former deeply into the sand. Then Billy and
I, each carrying the weapons with which we had provided ourselves, set
out to explore the new territory.

The beach was of varying width, ranging from two or three yards to, in
places, nothing at all; indeed many of the cocoa-nut trees were actually
rooted in soil that was, at the moment, being laved by the salt water,
due to the fact that we happened to land about the time of full tide.
It happened also that the fruit was at that season just ripening, so
many of the nuts falling to the ground with a thud, even as we stood
staring about us, that we were able without difficulty to collect and
place in the boat as many as we pleased. This done, we attempted to
make our way inland, but so dense was the undergrowth at that point that
we were soon compelled to abandon our efforts, it being clearly evident
that the only way in which we could penetrate would be by hewing a path
for ourselves.

But it did not follow that because we failed here we must necessarily
fail everywhere. We therefore re-embarked and, again getting under way,
headed northward, keeping close to the beach and maintaining a good
look-out for a spot affording a reasonable prospect of successful
penet