436 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



said to inliabit tliat liigli point, and wlioni lie be- 

 lieved we should certainly meet. But we gained the 

 summit without meeting any unearthly intruders. 

 There I found the whole bay and its shores spread 

 out before me like a map. The broad coral banks 

 bordering several of the points and islands were of a 

 light-clay color in the dark-blue water, which was 

 only here and there ruffled by the light morning 

 breezes then moving over its limpid surface. This 

 bay is said to closely resemble the bay of E.io Janeiro 

 by those who have seen both. To the north it has a 

 long arm, but on the south its boundary is sharply 

 defined when viewed from the lofty point where I 

 stood, while off the mouth of the bay was the high 

 island of Mensalla, its hills making a sharply-ser- 

 rated line against the sky. 



On another occasion I made an excursion in a 

 boat some six miles toward the northern end of the 

 bay to look at some layers of coal. Leaving the 

 boat we went a short distance up the side of a range 

 of hills on the northwest side of the bay, and, crossing 

 two small ridges that ran down to the shore, found 

 the bed of a brook, which at that season was dry. 

 In one of its sides were seen the layers of coal, ap- 

 proximately parallel to the surface of the hills, and 

 resting on clay schists, to which they appeared per- 

 fectly conformable. Crossing another low ridge, we 

 came down into the bed of another brook, where the 

 same strata were again seen. The coal here is veiy 

 impure, except near the middle layers, and appears 

 to be of little commercial value ; neither is the pros- 

 pect flattering for finding other strata of a better qual- 



