erably. Our crew seem rather a clumsy lot. They do not
walk the deck with the easy swing of English sailors, but hesitate
and stagger like landsmen. In the night the lower boom of our mainsail
broke, and they were all the morning repairing it. It consisted of two
bamboos lashed together, thick end to thin, and was about seventy feet
long. The rigging and arrangement of these praus contrasts strangely
with that of European vessels, in which the various ropes and spars,
though much more numerous, are placed so as not to interfere with each
other's action. Here the case is quite different; for though there are
no shrouds or stays to complicate the matter, yet scarcely anything can
be done without first clearing something else out of the way. The large
sails cannot be shifted round to go on the other tack without first
hauling down the jibs, and the booms of the fore and aft sails have to
be lowered and completely detached to perform the same operation. Then
there are always a lot of ropes foul of each other, and all the sails
can never be set (though they are so few) without a good part of their
surface having the wind kept out of them by others. Yet praus are much
liked even by those who have had European vessels, because of their
cheapness both in first cost and in keeping up; almost all repairs can
be done by the crew, and very few European stores are required.

Dec. 28th.--This day we saw the Banda group, the volcano first
appearing,--a perfect cone, having very much the outline of the Egyptian
pyramids, and looking almost as regular. In the evening the smoke rested
over its summit like a small stationary cloud. This was my first view
of an active volcano, but pictures and panoramas have so impressed
such things on one's mind, that when we at length behold them they seem
nothing extraordinary.

Dec. 30th.--Passed the island of Teor, and a group near it, which are
very incorrectly marked on the charts. Flying-fish were numerous to-day.
It is a smaller species than that of the Atlantic, and more active and
elegant in its motions. As they skim along the surface they turn on
their sides, so as fully to display their beautiful fins, taking a
flight of about a hundred yards, rising and falling in a most graceful
manner. At a little distance they exactly resemble swallows, and no one
who sees them can doubt that they really do fly, not merely descend in
an oblique direction from the height they gain by their first spring. In