of the Seychelles Archipelago. 347 



of sparks falling on to them during the whole operation if the raeu 

 are unskilful. A third man, in the stern, quietly pushes the canoe 

 along with a pole. The sport was not very diverting to me the 

 night we were out, as, with the exception of small needle-fish, a 

 foot long, I did not see anything to strike at, and not a fish was 

 caught, as the sea was not sufliciently calm ; at the same time 

 the light of the torches reflected on the coral only some two or 

 three feet beneath the sui'face (as you always fish in very shallow 

 water) was beautiful, having the appearance of a very rough 

 snow-field, and I have no doubt that if there had been no ripple 

 the effect would have been still more striking. 



The weather on the 5th February having improved, and the 

 wind being steady from the north-west, we determined to make a 

 start for Praslin and Curieuse, where the double cocoa-nut (Lo- 

 doicea sechellarum) * grows, and the islands in their neighbour- 

 hood. Dr. Brooks, the Government Medical Officer, kindly lent 

 us his boat, a large one of about seven tons and yawl-rigged, in 

 which we left Mahe at 10 o'clock in the morning of the 6th, and 

 at 4 in the afternoon ran on to the beach of Anse Marie-Louise, 

 at the east end of Praslin, where we were most hospitably re- 

 ceived by Mr. Campbell, an ex-whaler, and his wife, a Creole of 

 Ladigue, at his house, situated in a luxuriant grove of common 

 cocoa-nut. The distance from Mahe to Praslin is about twenty- 

 five miles, and we fetched the south-east point of the island in 

 one tack, I did not see many birds but the common Haliplana 

 panayensis, Shearwaters, Tropic-birds, and a few Boobies. 



Praslin is about seven and a half miles long by three wide 

 in its broadest part, having an interrupted belt of marsh along 

 the coast of from fifty to a hundred yards wide, usually covered 

 with Hibiscus and other plants ; and then the land rises imme- 

 diately, forming a continuous chain of hills from 1000 to 1500 

 feet in height throughout its length. It is not nearly so rocky 

 as any of the other islands I visited. The coast is almost entirely 

 fringed with groves of cocoa-nuts growing between the sea and 

 the marshes. The hills are not thickly wooded, the " Cedre'' 



* An interesting account of this curious palm is given by Mr. Swin- 

 burne Ward in the Journal of the Limieau Society, (Botany) vol. viii. 

 pp. 135-139. 



