come here for it. Last Sunday there were sixteen
schooners in this little port. They are all away now at the reefs, but
are expected back next Sunday.

We had Litany at eleven o'clock. In the afternoon I landed with the
Doctor, and sat, or rather lay quietly, on the pleasant sandy shore
for an hour or two, while the Doctor and the sailors roamed about and
picked up many curious pieces of coral and some lumps of scoriae, of
which the whole island seems to be formed. There is very little soil
beneath the volcanic matter, and it is wonderful how trees and plants
manage to grow in such luxuriant fashion. Some cocoa-nut trees have
been planted, which are doing exceedingly well, and I rested under
their shade, looking up at the sky through the long, pale green
leaves. The innumerable flies, ants, and sandflies were troublesome.
But what can be expected in a land where the ant-heaps are ten feet
high and twenty-four feet in circumference? While on his rambles with
one of our men the Doctor saw a large snake four or five feet in
length, which he vainly tried to kill; but the reptile escaped into a
crevice in the rocks amongst the brushwood.

Tom, Tab, and Mr. Wright, in the meantime, went over to the mainland
to pay a visit to Mr. Jardine. They found the sea rather rough in the
narrow crossing, and after a stiff clamber up the hillside arrived at
the house. Mr. Jardine was away, but his manager, Mr. Schramud, gave
them some interesting information about the pearl fishery, and spoke
of the trouble of establishing their station in old days. He took them
round the paddocks where the bullocks are kept, and then a little way
through the bush, where he showed them an encampment of aborigines
which was much better constructed than usual. The centre hut was
large, with nicely built walls and a substantial thatched roof of
coarse dry grass.

The hut was divided into two parts, one section containing two beds
slightly raised from the floor, and the other a few rough seats and a
table, upon which stood a broken lamp and a drum, apparently hollowed
out from a piece of wood. Mr. Schramud gave the drum to Tab, saying
that its peculiarity consisted in the fact that, though the natives
possessed no adzes or chisels, the wood was completely hollowed out,
and yet it must have been done with knives of the most inferior
description. He had often tried, unsuccessfully, to 'catch the natives
at work' as he expressed it, in order to watch their m