usual work at the head of the basin; and Forbes, with his gang,
vigorously attacked the narrow belt of scrub that still interposed
between them and their goal.

It happened, however, that this bit of scrub was more thickly dotted
with trees than any other portion that they had yet met with, so that it
was four o'clock in the afternoon before a very careful final
measurement assured us that the most laborious part of our task had come
to an end. The ground, however, was still covered with _debris_, which
had to be cleared away before the actual digging operations could be
commenced, and this occupied fully another hour. By this time the
evening shadows had begun to climb up the hillsides; nevertheless the
men seized their picks and shovels, and, with renewed energy, began to
turn up the ground.

They toiled thus for an hour, by which time they had excavated a hole
some three feet deep in the centre, and I had actually, with great
reluctance, given the word to knock off, when Barr, driving his pick
deep into the ground, where he intended to leave it that night, struck
upon something harder than soil.

"Hurrah, boys," he exclaimed, "here's something at last! Stick to it,
and let's see what it is before we leave it."

At it again they accordingly went, with such desperate vigour that the
perspiration literally poured _off_ their arms and down their necks, and
in a few minutes they succeeded in laying bare the top of a solid timber
chest, strongly bound with iron. They were very anxious to get this
chest out of the ground, there and then; but on attempting to clear the
earth away from round about it, it was found that the chest was only one
of several others all packed closely together, so that it would be
necessary to reach one of the outer chests before any of them could be
conveniently moved. We were consequently compelled to content ourselves
that night with the knowledge that we had found _something_, and to wait
until the next morning to ascertain the value of our discovery.

The following sunrise found us once more _en route_ for the shore, this
time provided with a couple of spare studding-sail booms to act as
sheers for the more convenient hoisting out of the chests, together with
such rope, blocks, etcetera, as we should require for the purpose. The
size of the chests, however, was such as would probably tax the strength
of the entire party to handle them, and I was therefore reluctantly
compelled to ca