paper-mulberry,
but without success. Arthur had discovered a large and beautiful
species of sweet-scented fern, with a tuberous root shaped like a
sweet-potato, which he said was baked and eaten by the Society
Islanders: he brought with him several entire specimens, root and all.
The leaves were fragrant and elegantly shaped, and the roots were of a
mottled brown and yellow. Eiulo carried in his hand an unripe
bread-fruit--a splendid pea-green globe, nearly as big as his head.
They had discovered a noble grove of this most valuable tree, at no
great distance from the hill, but the fruit was not yet perfectly ripe.
Johnny, who had awaked at the return of the absentees, was greatly
delighted at these discoveries, and began to lament that he had not
accompanied Arthur. He inquired very particularly as to the direction
of the bread-fruit grove, as if cherishing the design of setting out at
once to visit it; but Browne letting some thing drop about the voice in
the woods, Johnny changed the subject, and saying that it must be nearly
dinner-time, proposed to make a fire, and bake the fern roots, so as to
test their quality. Upon hearing this, Max, whose slumbers had also
been disturbed, raised his head for a moment and exclaimed so vehemently
against the very mention of a fire, when we were already dissolving with
heat, that nothing further was said about it.

"And now," said Arthur, after having given a full account of his
discoveries, and answered all Johnny's questions, "I believe it is just
noon, and while I think of it, I will try to ascertain our longitude."

"Ascertain our longitude!" exclaimed Browne, "pray, how do you propose
to do that without instruments?"

"I know the longitude of the Kingsmill islands," answered Arthur, "and
if I can find our distance east or west of them, of course, I have the
longitude of this island."

"But there's the difficulty; how can you ascertain even whether we are
to the east, or to the west of them?"

"In the first place, then, I have Kingsmill island time; my watch was
last set, one day while we were there, just after Mr Frazer had taken
an observation."

"Do you mean to say," inquired I with some interest, "that you have
regularly wound up your watch every day since then, without once
forgetting or neglecting it during all that has since occurred?"

"I did regularly, every night before sleeping; and during all the time
that we were at sea in the boat, hardly a day passe