IV 



New Caledonia 6^ 



islands we found to be carved and worn into in- 

 numerable holes and crevices, separated from each 

 other by knife-edges of rock which caused our boots 

 to come to speedy grief ; and in these holes we often 

 found, huddled together, three, four, or five venomous 

 water-snakes,^ semi-comatose in the fervid tropical 

 heat, so that we could drag them out by their 

 flattened tails, and take them on board the yacht 

 for examination. Real savages, with extraordinary 

 bushy masses of hair on their heads, came off to us 

 from the bright, sandy beaches ; they knew nothing 

 of money, and had to be paid in tobacco : the whole 

 scene was just like a picture in Captain Cook. 

 Going on shore, our wonder became even greater. 

 To say nothing about strange trees and flowers, my 

 shooting bag consisted of pigeons and flying-foxes, 

 great fruit-eating bats which climb and scramble about 

 the trees like monkeys, and fly as strong and as 

 free as a pheasant. The pigeons were of three sorts. 

 One large, almost as large as a hen pheasant, bronze 

 and the most glorious purple ; another, smaller, 

 bright green with a yellow breast and tail, and a 

 black and white ring round his neck ; the third, 

 smaller still, magenta and green — the loveliest little 

 creature that I ever saw. The shells and fish were 

 equally strange and beautiful ; the latter were 

 poisonous, and it was lucky for us that we found 

 this out from the natives before we tried to eat 



1 Hydrophis. ' Every hole in which we found them had an easily 

 ascendable talus on one side.' — Note to The Field. 



