THE BATTUE ON BONDA KEY. 189 



I explained how the Doctor had presided over the 

 fight. 



"The Colossus of Rhodes!" she answered back. 



"Poke! I say, Poke! Miss Jackson says you stood 

 like the Colossus of Rhodes." 



" I won't stand for a Colossus again," he replied, shov- 

 ing off his boat, and resuming his paddle ; " that misera- 

 ble cat has scratched my legs bare !" 



As our line advanced we could see the end of the 

 island that ran out in a long narrow bar. Hundreds of 

 gulls and black-headed terns, with snow-white bodies, 

 disturbed from the sands, were cawing over us, and 

 curlews and plover wheeled in circles, uttering their 

 plaintive cries. Crowds of merganser ducks that were 

 sitting on the shingle, basking in the sun, rushed out to 

 sea, piling up the water in front of them, and small birds 

 took flight to the neighboring islands, or flew high in the 

 air to regain their accustomed haunts in the thickets. 

 Like as some great seine that has inclosed a broad bay, 

 at last contracts its semi-circle toward the beach, expos- 

 ing to the light the flashing fishes that in vain attempt 

 to leap its cords, while the gulls and fish-hawks wait 

 above, so our line closed up, the prey rushed hither and 

 thither, the black heads of the negroes above the grass, 

 like the floats on the net, bobbed up and down, and with 

 shout and cry, the terrified animals made their last leaps 

 and tricks for their lives. 



The first thing that broke our line was a doe, with a 

 fawn nearly grown. The doe was let past, but one of 



