apparently long since extinct. In others the landscape
presented the soft beauty of undulating grove-like scenery, in which,
amid a profusion of bright green herbage, there rose conspicuous the
tall stems and waving plumes of the cocoa-nut palm; the superb and
umbrageous ko-a, with its laurel-green leaves and sweet blossoms; the
_kukui_ or candle-nut tree, the fragrant sandal-wood, and a variety of
other trees and shrubs for which there are no English names.

Hundreds of green paroquets with blue heads and red breasts,
turtle-doves, wood-pigeons, and other birds, enlivened the groves with
sound, if not with melody, and the various lakelets and pools were alive
with wild ducks and water-hens.

The route by which the party travelled, led them first across a country
of varied and beautiful aspect; then it conducted them into wild
mountain fastnesses, among which they clambered, at times with
considerable difficulty. Ere long they passed into a dreary region
where the ancient fires that upheaved the island from the deep seemed to
have scorched the land into a condition of perpetual desolation.
Blackened and bare lava rocks, steep volcanic ridges and gorges,
irregular truncated coves, deep-mouthed caves and fissures, overhanging
arches, natural bridges, great tunnels and ravines, surrounded them on
every side, and so concealed the softer features of the country that it
was scarcely possible to believe in the reality of the verdant region
out of which they had just passed. In another hour this chaotic scenery
was left behind; the highest ridge of the mountains was crossed, and the
travellers began to descend the green slopes on the other side of the
island. These slopes terminated in a beach of white sand, while beyond
lay the calm waters of the enclosed lagoon, the coral reef with its
breakers, and the mighty sea.

"'Tis a pretty spot?" said Henry, interrogatively, as the party halted
on the edge of a precipice, whence they obtained an uninterrupted view
of the whole of that side of the island.

"Ay, pretty enough," replied Gascoyne in a somewhat sad tone of voice;
"I had hoped to have led a quiet life here once,--but that was not to
be. How say you, Bumpus; could you make up your mind to cast anchor
here for a year or so?"

"Wot's that you say, capting?" inquired honest John, who was evidently
lost in admiration of the magnificent scene that lay spread out before
him.

"I ask if you have no objection to come to