out where the birds were before he would be devoured.
It evidently was just such a place as those
monsters delight to frequent, but I determined to go
after them myself; and as I proceeded to carry out
my resolution, my hunter, ashamed to remain on the
banks, joined me, and after an ugly scramble through
the bushes and sticks, and much wallowing in the
soft mud, we got into the water and out to the flock,
and as soon as possible were back again on the bank.
The commandant now came up, and I recounted to
him what we had been doing. He was horrified!
That a man could go into that pond and escape the
crocodiles for ten minutes he regarded as next to a
miracle. A number of natives, who had frequently
visited the place, assured me that nothing could have
induced them to run such a risk of losing their lives.
Our whole party then continued on over the grassy
hills, and came down to Roban, a place of two native
huts, and one of those was empty. Here, I
thought to myself, will be another good locality to
find new gpecies, and I determined to return and
occupy the vacant house for a few days.
It was already late in the afternoon before we
thought of returning, and pushed off from the shore
in a boat that had come round the cape at the mouth
of the bay to take us home. Soon the wind sprang
up ahead, our little sail was taken in, and our men
used their oars; but the sun set and the moon arose,
and yet we were slowly toiling on, and occasionally
our boat grated on the top of a coral head that rose
higher than those around it. At last we passed the
cape, and reached the smooth water of the bay, yet
the helmsman kept near the shore, and took us between
two little islands on the east side of the bay,
called by the natives Crocodile Islands. As we
passed the low point of one of them, within a boat s
length from the shore, an enormous crocodile crawled
out of the jungle and clumsily hurried down the narrow
bank into the water, as if he had come out expecting
to make a meal of us. The thought of the
danger I had incurred that very day of being devoured
by such monsters made me shudder and seize an oar,
but the amphibious beast was already out of my
reach« •
Along the eastern side of Kay6Li Bay there is an
extensive coral reef, and farther out around the cape
is another, a quarter of a mile wide, that is bare at
low tide. Along the outer edges of this I floated
the next day, while on my way back to Roban. Ihe
water was still, and as clear as crystal, and we could
see distinctly far down into the deep, deep sea.
How as we come near the reef, its outer wall suddenly
rises up, apparently from the unfathomable
abyss of the ocean. Among the first forms we notice
are the hemispherical Mecmdrinas, or “ brain corals,
named, because, when the soft polyps are removed,
small fissure-like depressions are found winding to
and fro over its surface, making the raised parts be-
tween them closely resemble the convolutions of the
brain. Hear by are some sending out many branches,
like a thick bush, and others with only a few, resembling
deer-antlers of abnormal growth. Some, which
do not attach themselves to their neighbors, are
circular, as we see them from above. Their under