248 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



hundred feet above the sea. It was a perfect repeti- 

 tion of the reef I visited in the bay of the Portuguese 

 village of Dilli, at the northern end of Timui*. A 

 small place had been cleared on its crest, and there I 

 found several pairs of the huge valves of the Tridacna 

 gigas, which appeared from their relative position to 

 have been once partially surrounded by the soft coral 

 rock, which, having been washed away, allowed the 

 valves to fall apart. They were much decayed, but 

 had not lost more than half their weight. They had 

 evidently never been brought there by men; be- 

 cause the natives rarely or never use them for food. 

 There is no need that they should take the trouble 

 to gather such enormous bivalves when they have a 

 plenty of sago-palms, and all that it is necessary for 

 them to do to obtain an abundance of food is to cut 

 down these trees and dig out the pith. If, in former 

 times, they did collect the Tridacna for food, they 

 never would have carried these great shells, each 

 of which originally weighed a hundred pounds or 

 more, a mile back among the hills, but would have 

 taken out the animal and left them on the shore. 

 Governor Arriens, who had carefully studied these 

 recent reefs, stated to me that he had found them as 

 high up as eight hundred feet above the sea, but at 

 that elevation they seem to disappear. 



When returning we stopped for some time on the 

 hills back of the city to enjoy a magnificent view of 

 the bay and the high hills rising on the opposite side. 

 Just then the broad strati, floating in the west, parted, 

 and rays of bright sunlight, darting through theu' fis- 

 sures, lighted up the dark water beneath us. There 



