258 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



liad scarcely touclied the shore when a party of 

 them in ambush poured a volley into his boat, 

 wounding him twice severely, but not fatally. I 

 now found myself really banished, for the yacht was 

 needed too much to come and take me away. I 

 therefore resigned myself quietly to my fate, and de- 

 termined to profit by the opportunity to make a col- 

 lection of the beautiful birds of the island. My first 

 excui'sion was to a cliff on the southeast side of the 

 bay, near its mouth, which I found was composed of 

 metamorphic schists, that were very much fissured by 

 joints and seams, and fell apart in cubical blocks. 

 Another place I frequently ^dsited was the low mo- 

 rass on the southwest side of the bay, through which 

 flows out a stream of such size that a large canoe can 

 ascend it for three days. Along the canals in this 

 morass is a thick forest, the high branches of which 

 meet above, forming for a considerable distance grand 

 covered avenues. Here the kingfishers delight to 

 gather, and, perching on the lower boughs, occasion- 

 ally dart downward, like falling arrows, into the 

 quiet water. It was most delightful, during the heat 

 of the day, to glide along in these cool and shady 

 canals, which wind to and fro, and in such an endless 

 series of curves and angles, that no one could weary 

 of the rich, almost oppressive, vegetation that con- 

 tinually surrounds him. At the mouth of this small 

 river are long shallow banks of sand, which are bare 

 at low tide, and on these are many large snags and 

 logs that have come down the streams and grounded 

 while on their way to the sea. On these wide banks, 

 as the ebbing ceases and the tide begins to flow, long 



