a very strong bitter saline taste. These springs are
used by the natives to boil their yams, which it does simply by putting
them into the springs, and covering them with grass and leaves, and,
although the water had scarcely any appearance of boiling before, rapid
ebullition ensues. The yams are well done in fifteen minutes.

The population of the Feejee Group is supposed to be about 130,000.
Their towns are all on the sea-shore, as the chief food is fish. The
Feejeeans are very ingenious at canoe-building and carpentry, and,
curious enough, the barber is a most important personage, as they take
great pains and pride in dressing their hair. Their houses are from
twenty to thirty feet in length, and about fifteen feet in height--all
have fireplaces, as they cook their food, which is done in jars, very
like an oil jar in form.

All these isles are girt by white encircling reefs, which, standing out
at some distance from the shore, forms a natural harbour, so that when a
vessel has once entered, it is as secure as in an artificial dock.
There is generally but one entrance through the reef, and the difficulty
of discovering it is well described by the Young Crusoes. Each one has
its own peculiar beauty; but Ovolan exceeds all others; it is the
highest, the most broken, and the most picturesque.

Having thus introduced our readers to the scene of these adventures, we
proceed to give the narrative in the words of the journalist of the
Young Castaways.

CHAPTER TWO.

THE TROPICAL ISLAND.

A COCOA-PALM--VIEWS OF DESERT ISLAND LIFE.

"O had we some bright little isle of our own,
In the blue summer ocean, far-off and alone."

Wandering along the shore, (taking care to keep in sight of Mr Frazer,
under whose convoy, in virtue of his double-barrelled fowling-piece, we
considered ourselves), we came to a low and narrow point, running out a
little way into the sea, the extremity of which was adorned by a stately
group of cocoa-nut trees.

The spot seemed ill adapted to support vegetation of so magnificent a
growth, and nothing less hardy than the cocoa-palm could have derived
nourishment from such a soil. Several of these fine trees stood almost
at the water's edge, springing from a bed of sand, mingled with black
basaltic pebbles, and coarse fragments of shells and coral, where their
roots were washed by every rising tide: yet their appearance was thrifty
and flourishing, and they were thickly covered with