RASORES. 171 



severe trials. In the present instance the native dug down 

 six times in succession to a depth of at least six or seven feet 

 without finding an egg, and at the last attempt came up in 

 such a state of exhaustion that he refused to try again ; but 

 my interest was now too much excited to relinquish the op- 

 portunity of verifying the native's statements, and by the offer 

 of an additional reward I induced him to make another effort : 

 this seventh trial proved successful, and my gratification was 

 complete, when the native with equal pride and satisfaction 

 held up an egg, and after two or three more attempts pro- 

 duced a second ; thus proving how cautious Europeans should 

 be of disregarding the narratives of these poor children of 

 nature, because they happen to sound extraordinary or different 

 from anything with which they were previously acquainted. 



" I revisited Knocker's Bay on the 10th of February, and 

 having with some difficulty penetrated into a dense thicket of 

 cane-like creeping plants, I suddenly found myself beside a 

 mound of gigantic proportions. It was fifteen feet in height 

 and sixty in circumference at the base, the upper part being 

 about a third less, and was entirely composed of the richest 

 description of light vegetable mould ; on the top were very 

 recent marks of the bird's feet. The native and myself im- 

 mediately set to work, and after an hour's extreme labour, 

 rendered the more fatiguing from the excessive heat, and the 

 tormenting attacks of myriads of mosquitoes and sand-flies, I 

 succeeded in obtaining an egg from a depth of about five feet ; 

 it was in a perpendicular position, with the earth surrounding 

 and very lightly touching it on all sides, and without any other 

 material to impart warmth, which in fact did not appear neces- 

 sary, the mound being quite warm to the hands. The holes in 

 this mound commenced at the outer edge of the summit, and 

 ran down obliquely towards the centre : their direction there- 

 fore is not uniform. Like the majority of the mounds I have 

 seen, this was so enveloped in thickly foliaged trees as to pre- 

 clude the possibiUty of the sun's rays reaching any part of it. 



