and undergrowth it was exceedingly probable
that, unless something unforeseen occurred to extinguish the fire, every
living thing upon it would be destroyed, except such creatures as might
essay to swim the Middle Channel and take refuge upon West Island.

But as the day progressed, and the fire advanced, spreading ever more
rapidly as great volumes of sparks were borne by the wind on ahead of
the main body of flame, kindling subsidiary fires in advance, I began to
doubt whether West Island would escape, remembering as I did that there
was a stretch of the Middle Channel which was little more than half a
mile wide, across which such a tremendous volume of sparks as now filled
the air might easily be wafted. Toward evening my anticipation in this
respect was verified, for upon ascending to the summit of our own peak
on Eden, at the conclusion of our day's work, we saw that not only was
the surface of Apes' Island an unbroken expanse of black, smoking ashes
and charred tree-stumps, but that the fire had leaped Middle Channel,
and practically the whole eastern side of West Island was a mass of
flame. The destruction of life would of course be enormous; but such
glimpses as had thus far been afforded us of the animal life upon the
group seemed to indicate that it was inimical to mankind; and if its
destruction involved that of the apes, it was not to be greatly
regretted.

I waited three days to allow the ashes to cool, and then, taking Billy
with me, sailed for the Middle Channel, running the boat ashore on Apes'
Island at a spot where a stream of fresh water discharged into the
narrowest part of the channel. Here we landed, and started to walk
eastward over and through ashes that were ankle-deep and in places still
unpleasantly hot. I was quite prepared to find evidences that the
destruction of animal life had been tremendous; but even so I was amazed
at the innumerable scorched and shrivelled carcasses of creatures that
had made their way to the water's edge and had there perished, probably
suffocated by the smoke because they had feared to take to the water.
They lay thick upon the ground, huddled together, as far as the eye
could reach to the right and left of the spot where we landed, and the
odour of burnt flesh was almost overpowering, while flies and birds
swarmed about them in legions. The remains were mostly so far consumed
as to be impossible of identification, but here and there we came upon
what, judging