240 THE MOLUCCAS. [chap. 



parts of the island we brought away specimens of hard granitic rocks, 

 hornblende, mica, and micaceous schist and jasper, and at one spot 

 pure alum in tolerable quantity was found by one of our party. 



Obi Latu — an island lying at the north-west end of Obi Major — 

 was our next destination, and here we found an excellent bay, 

 guarded at the mouth by an island, unmarked even in our Dutch 

 chart, which the native called Pulo Kuching, or Cat Island. It was 

 exciting work entering, the crystal-clear water, which was hardly 

 more than four fathoms deep, showing large jagged rocks on the 

 bottom, against which we momentarily expected to run, for the 

 glare of the sun prevented our seeing any distance aheatl. Luckily 

 — for in these waters chance has considerably more to do with 

 navigation than in our own — we reached our anchorage safely. It 

 was a good one ; well protected in all except easterly winds, and of 

 importance as being the only, harbour we found in the group. Our 

 old guide, however, spoke of the existence of another, and a still 

 better one, at the northern extremity of Tapa Island. 



We landed our hunters on Obi Latu, and rowed out to Pulo 

 Kuching, which a nearer investigation showed to consist of two 

 islands in process of union by the action of the inevitable mangrove. 

 At one part these trees had perished for a distance of a couple of 

 hundred yards or more, and it would be difficult to imagine any- 

 thing more grotesquely horrible than the scene they presented. 

 The trunks were as black as if they had suffered from the ravages 

 of a forest fire ; dank, greasy, and covered with fungus. Some had 

 fallen, and lay with their gaunt dead branches locked together to 

 form an almost impenetralDle barrier. Others still stood ; so rotten 

 that the slishtest touch sent them crashing into the fetid ooze. 

 The weird, gnarled roots — tougher than the trunks — still remained, 

 forming a precarious network, which from its decayed condition 

 was well-nigh impossible to traverse. Scrambling over these, 

 bathed in perspiration and battling with swarms of mosquitoes 

 that attacked me, at one moment slipping into the inky mud, 

 at another creepmg hazardously along a single overarching root, it 



