tween the reef and
the shore. A few moments' exercise at the oars sufficed to dispel our
drowsiness, and to reconcile us somewhat to the early start, which we
had so reluctantly taken.

The faint grey light revealed the sleeping landscape, invested with the
delicious freshness and repose of the earliest dawn in summer. The
shores of the island, with their dense masses of verdure, were so
perfectly mirrored in the lagoon, that the peculiar characteristics of
the different kinds of foliage could be distinguished in their
reflections. The drooping plumes of the palms, the lance-shaped
pandanus leaves, and the delicate, filmy foliage of the casuarina, were
all accurately imaged there; the inverted shore below, with its fringe
of trees and shrubbery, looking scarcely less substantial and real, than
its counterpart above. But as the light increased, these reflections
lost their softness, and the clearness of their outlines. The gradually
brightening dawn, cast new and rapidly changing lights and shades upon
the waters and the shores; and the latter, which, as we moved onward, we
beheld every moment from a new point of view, charmed the eye with a
perpetual variety. In some places they were abrupt and bold; in others
smoothly rounded, or gently sloping. Now we were opposite a jutting
promontory, which, crowned with verdure, and overgrown with pendulous
and creeping plants, pushed out over the narrow alluvial belt of shore,
to the water's edge; now shooting past it, we caught a sudden and
transient glimpse of some cool valley, opening down to the lagoon, and
stretching away inland through vistas of fine trees.

Johnny expressed a fervent wish that he was a painter, in order that we
might sail round the island, take sketches of the scenery, and then
paint a panorama, embracing all the best views, by exhibiting which at
twenty-five cents a head, we should all make our fortunes upon getting
home. He appeared to have some doubts, however, whether that particular
time of day could be painted, even by the most accomplished artist. The
lagoon channel wound through fields of branching coral trees of
luxuriant growth, among which, numbers of large fish were moving
sluggishly about, as if they had got up too early, and were more than
half inclined to indulge in another nap. As we passed over a sort of
bar, where there was not more than a fathom and a half of water, we
espied an immense green turtle at the bottom, quietly pursu