f the ridges,
and having shot as many birds as I could carry, I decided to make a
short cut down to the level ground, where I was sure of finding water,
resting awhile and then making my way home along the beach to the
village.

I had descended scarcely more than fifty yards when I struck the path--a
thin, red line of sticky, clay soil, criss-crossed by countless roots of
the great forest trees. A brief examination showed me that it had been
trodden by the feet of natives quite recently; their footprints led
downward. I followed, and presently came to a cleared space on the
mountainside, a spot which had evidently been used by a party of hunters
who had stayed there to cook some food, for the ashes of a fire lay in
the ground-oven they had made. Laying down my gun, I went to the edge
and peered cautiously over, and there far below I could see the pool,
revealed by a shaft of sunlight which pierced down through the leafy
canopy.

Feeling sure that the track would lead me to the water, where I should
have the satisfaction of a long drink, I set out again, and after
narrowly escaping pitching down headlong, I at last reached the bottom,
and, with a sigh of relief, threw down my gun and birds, and in another
moment was drinking eagerly of the ice-cold, crystal water in one of the
many minor pools which lay everywhere amid the boulders.

After a few minutes' rest I collected some dead wood and lit a fire,
being hungry as well as thirsty; then leaving it to burn down, I
climbed one of the highest boulders to get a good view, and sighed with
admiration at the scene--there lay before me a deep, almost circular
sheet or water, about thirty yards across. Directly beneath me I could
see the rocky bottom; fifty feet further out towards the centre it was
of unfathomable blueness. On the opposite side a tree of enormous girth
had fallen, long years before, yet it was still growing, for some of its
mighty roots were embedded in the rich red soil of the mountain-side.

As I looked, a fish, and then another, splashed just beside the fallen
tree. Slipping down from the boulder, I made my way round, just in time
to see scores of beautiful silvery fish, exactly like English grayling
in shape, dart away from under the tree out into the deep water. In
other streams of the island I had caught many of these fish, but had
never seen any so high up inland; and, elated at the prospect of much
future sport, I went on with my explorations.

I