ration. Several times we believed we had found what we were
seeking, but on each occasion our hopes were speedily dashed, our most
successful effort resulting merely in penetration for a distance of less
than half a mile. But, even so, our attempts were not unmitigated
failures, for while our clothing suffered somewhat in our encounters
with the thorns that persistently barred our passage, we were fortunate
enough to secure a few bunches of delicious wild grapes, a large bunch
of very delicately flavoured bananas, and six splendid pineapples. Upon
our return to the beach I took the precaution to mark the spot by
cutting a good big branch and inserting it upright in the sand, so that
it could easily be seen at some distance; and then we resumed our voyage
of exploration, lunching luxuriously upon bananas, meanwhile.

At length, after working northward for a distance of some fourteen miles
along the western shore, we quite suddenly opened out the mouth of what
I at first supposed to be an important river running in a south-easterly
direction toward the interior of the island, but which subsequently
proved to be one of several channels dividing what I originally imagined
to be only one island into a group of no less than seven. Naturally, I
at once decided to abandon for the moment the further exploration of the
lagoon, in favour of a survey of this waterway, and the boat was
accordingly put about and headed into it. At its entrance it measured
about half a mile wide, but as we proceeded it gradually widened out
until, at a point about eight miles inward from the lagoon, it was quite
two and a half miles wide. Here the channel trended a point or two
farther to the eastward; and some four miles farther on it forked, one
branch continuing to the south-eastward while the other trended away
toward the north-east. I decided to follow the latter.

The land on both sides was still distinctly hilly, and densely covered
with forest, but on our left the hills sloped rapidly downward until
they died away in a plateau, the level of which was only two or three
feet above the surface of the water. As the boat glided slowly onward
under the influence of a breeze that had steadily grown more languid and
fitful as we progressed, we subjected this plateau to a rigorous
scrutiny through the ship's telescope, which we carried with us, but the
place looked so uninviting that we decided against landing there. Nor
did the land to the so