252 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



sand on this cool morning. The sky was cloudless ; the 

 just-risen sun was hidden behind the dark mass of 

 woods on Shimuni, but the long line of forest to the 

 west, on Baria, with its plumy decorations of palms, 

 was lighted up with his yellow, horizontal rays. A faint 

 chorus of singing birds reached the ears from across 

 the water, and flocks of gulls and plovers were crying 

 plaintively over the swelling banks of the praia, where 

 their eggs lay in nests made in little hollows of the 

 sand. Tracks of stray turtles were visible on the smooth 

 white surface of the praia. The animals which thus 

 wander from the main body are lawful prizes of the 

 sentinels ; they had caught in this way two before sun- 

 rise, one of which we had for dinner. In my walk I 

 disturbed several pairs of the chocolate and drab- 

 coloured wild goose (Anser jubatus) which set off to run 

 along the edge of the water. The enjoyment one feels 

 in rambling over these free, open spaces, is no doubt 

 enhanced by the novelty of the scene, the change being 

 very great from the monotonous landscape of forest 

 which everywhere else presents itself. 



On arriving at the edge of the forest I mounted the 

 sentinel's stage, just in time to see the turtles retreating 

 to the water on the opposite side of the sand-bank, 

 after having laid their eggs. The sight was well worth 

 the trouble of ascending the shaky ladder. They were 

 about a mile off, but the surface of the sands was black- 

 ened with the multitudes which were waddling towards 

 the river ; the margin of the praia was rather steep, and 

 they all seemed to tumble head first down the declivity 

 into the water. 



