112 



NATIVE RAFT. 



group, three miles from our former anchorage. 

 A i)arty landed in the afternoon to procure the 

 requisite ohservations : the country was not quite 

 so sterile, nor its face of so rugged a character. We 

 found nothing worth particular attention, except a 

 native raft, the first we had yet seen. It was 

 formed of nine small poles pegged together, and 

 measured ten feet in length by four in breadth ; 

 the greatest diameter of the largest pole was three 

 inches. All the poles were of the palm tree, a 

 wood so light, that one man could carry the whole 

 affair with the greatest ease. By it there was a 

 very rude double-bladed paddle. 



From a distant station I looked upon the dangerous 

 and rapid current, which divides two rocky islands, 

 and the perils of which are fearfully increased by 

 the presence of an insulated rock in its centre, past 

 which (its fury only heightened by the opposition) 

 the torrent hurries with accelerated force. It was 

 by this fearful passage that Captain King entered 

 this part of the Sound, drifting towards apparently 

 instant destruction, without a breath of wind to 

 afford him even a chance of steering between the 



