Last visit to Nicohar. — Desolate Scene. 77 



still young, with immense spectacles, which undoubtedly were 

 worn much more for personal adornment than for use. They 

 brought off for sale a few apes, parrots, hens, swine, cocoa-nuts, 

 as also some rosin, tortoise-shell, amber, and a few large eggs of 

 a species of wood-pigeon, called by the natives Mek(^ni, of 

 which unfortunately we did not succeed in seeing a single 

 specimen, despite our utmost exertions. 



The following morning, 26th March, amid occasional pre- 

 monitory symptoms of the approach of the rainy season, the 

 naturalists and some officers endeavoured to effect a landing 

 at a place where alone it seemed possible for the broad, clumsy 

 boats of our western waters. In this we succeeded. Again we 

 were able, although drenched to the skin, to set foot on Ni- 

 cobar soil. It was for the last time we did so. Not a single 

 vestige could be discerned along the beach of any human habit- 

 ations : — all was thick tropical forest, fringed with enormous 

 Barringtonice Gigantew, which in all their primeval weirdness 

 flung their branches over the water, interlaced in wild con- 

 fusion. After half an hour's wandering along the hot beach, 

 we came unexpectedly, at a point somewhat soutli of our 

 point of disembarkation, upon a couple of wi'etched discon- 

 solate-looking huts. Not a human being was visible, — only 

 a pair of hens and a pig, which were parading about un- 

 tended ; the bamboo poles, which usually figure in front of 

 the native huts, had been carried away. However, in their 

 absence it did not cost us much trouble to penetrate into the 

 interior. A few weapons of war or the chase, a number of 



