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628
inches in height; and the women are wretched objects. Some
of the men had pieces of bone stuck through the cartilage of
the nose, which, I heard, was to prevent their being killed by
another tribe, who were seeking to revenge the death of one of
tlieir own party. I was told also, that when any death occurs
in one tribe, the first individual of another that is encountered is
sacrificed by the bereaved party, if strong enough; but I suspect
my informant confused revenge for manslaughter with
the strange story—that for every death in one tribe, however
caused, a life must be taken from another. Should it be true,
however, the scarcity of aboriginal population would have an
explanation in addition to those which various writers have
given. These natives bury their dead in a short grave; the
hody being laid on its side, with the knees drawn up to the chin.
During onr stay at this place we caught plenty of fish,
of twenty different kinds, with a seine; yet with such an
abundant supply close at hand, the settlers were living principally
on salt provisions.
Before quitting King George Sound I must add my slight
testimony to the skill and accuracy with which Flinders laid
down and described those parts of New Holland and 'Van Diemen’s
Land that I have seen. His accounts also of wind,
weather, climate, currents, and tides, are excellent; and there
are other points of information in his large work, useful to
many, but especially to seamen, which would he well worth
separating from the technicalities among which they are almost
lost in the present cumbersome volumes.
March 13th. We sailed, and advanced towards Cape Leu-
win, hut it was the 18th before our little ship was sufficiently
far westward of that promontory to steer for my next object,
the Keeling Islands.
From the 27th to the SOth we had a severe gale of wind,
when near the situation of those remote isles, and on the Slst
were in much doubt whether they lay eastward or to the
west of us. There was most reason to induce me to steer
eastward—^indeed I was about to give orders to that effect
just as the sun was setting, (no land heing seen from the masthead,
though the horizon was clear)—when a number of gan-
nets flew past the ship towards the west. We steered directly
after them, and early next morning (after making but little
way during a fine night) saw the Keelings right ahead, about
sixteen miles distant.
A long but broken line of cocoa-palm trees, and a heavy
surf breaking upon a low white beach, nowhere rising many
feet above the foaming water, was all we could discern till
within five miles of the larger Keeling, (there are two distinct
groups) and then we made out a number of low islets, nowhere
more than thirty feet above the sea, covered with
palm-trees, and encircling a large shallow lagoon.
We picked our way into Port Befuge (the only harhour),
passing cautiously between patches of coral rock, clearly visible
to an eye at the mast-head, and anchored in a safe, though not
the best berth. An Fnglishman (Mr. Leisk) came on board,
and, guided hy him, we moved into a small but secure cove
close to Direction Island.
Many reasons had induced me to select this group of coral
islets for such an examination as our time and means would
admit of ; and, as the tides were to be an object of especial
attention in a spot so favourably situated for observing them, a
tide-guage was immediately placed. Its construction was then
new, and, being found to answer, I will describe it briefly.
Two poles were fixed upright, one on shore (above high water
mark, and sheltered from wind), thé other in the sea beyond
the surf at low water. A block was fastened to the top of each
pole, and a piece of well-stretched log-line ‘rove’ through them.*
One end of the line was attached to a board that floated on
the water ; the other suspended a leaden weight, which traversed
up and down the pole, on shore, as the float fell or rose
with the tide. Simple as this contrivance was, and useful as we
should have found it in many places where the surf or swell
made it difficult to measure tides at night, without using a boat,
I never thought of it till after we left King George Sound.
* A very small metal chain would be better, because a line, however
stretched, will shrink after being wetted by rain, and give out again as
it dries.
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