A CAMP BY THE SEA. 327 



we therefore concluded to camp liere to-niglit. For 

 a tent we cut poles from the neighboring bunches of 

 bamboo and covered them with the boat's sail and 

 an old tarpaulin. Our friend K., who was extreme- 

 ly careful not to boast of being a good sailor, be- 

 came exceedingly frightened while we were in the 

 midst of the combing waves, and asked me, half a 

 dozen times during the evening, if the tide would 

 not rise so high as to wash us off this steep shore 

 before morning, but I tried to quiet his nerves by 

 assuring him that such a thing could not happen un- 

 less the earth should sink, a very possible thing now 

 that I come to think of it, for that very beach was com- 

 posed of black volcanic sand, and we were almost 

 beneath a cone, which rose on the flanks of Batu 

 angus^ and had been formed so recently that even the 

 luxuriant vegetation of these tropics had not yet had 

 time to gain a footing on its dark sides. In order 

 to get a partial shelter from the heavy showers we 

 expected before morning, we pitched our camp be- 

 neath the sturdy branches of an old tree. There 

 we slept while the wind, in heavy gusts, sighed 

 through the dense foliage over our heads, and at our 

 feet rose the heavy, pulsating roar of the ocean-surf. 



December 21s^. — After passing a comfortable 

 night, notwithstanding the fears of our companion 

 that we should awake before morning, and find our- 

 selves in the midst of the sea, we again attempted 

 to reach the northern end of Limbi, but, as soon as 

 we got out of the bay, we struck into such a heavy 

 sea that our men could not take us to windward, nnd 

 A\cre therefore obliged to put back once more. This 



