108 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



morning light shining through the thin emerald 

 tops of the swells and tingeing our boat with the 

 same color. Dolphins now and then rushed at us 

 and leaped so high into the air that I could see the 

 rising sun beneath their curving bodies, drenching 

 me with spray as they fell back. 



Four miles beyond we drew close inshore, but 

 had to pick our landing place with much care, 

 and even in the partly sheltered beach which we 

 found, the cameras and guns barely escaped a 

 soaking, as we staggered ashore up to our arms in 

 water. A walk of half a mile inland took us around 

 an impossible bit of shore, through a growth so 

 dense that we could see only a few feet in any 

 direction. Everywhere we passed the dry beds of 

 drainage streams, through which, after cloud- 

 bursts, torrents must make their way to a lake 

 which at present was a half -dried marsh. This was 

 filled with mosquitoes, apus and branchipus fairy 

 shrimps. Much of this end of the island was almost 

 level, with occasional tall pinnacles or spires of 

 broken lava which rose high and slenderly above 

 the scraggly trees and shrubs. The going was easy 

 as there was only a small amount of thorny mes- 

 quite and cactus. Black finches and mockingbirds 

 chirped and flew close to us, and rarely a great bee 

 zoomed past. 



Suddenly in front of me a white head and neck 

 shot up from behind a bush, and a few steps 

 brought me to my first nesting albatross. After 

 this we found them scattered about, sometimes 

 singly or again in pairs, with or without an egg. 



