DINNER AT A LAKE. 29 



trary, we took it to be part of a swamp, that might 

 safely be crossed, though not without difficulty, for we 

 were always up to our knees, often to our hips, in this 

 jelly. All this caused a great deal of merriment. A 

 little hunchback, who carried a basket swinging on a 

 stick, looked most ludicrous in his endeavours to keep 

 pace with us. Now and then, when one or the other 

 was trying to save himself from sinking into inextricable 

 positions, he had to crawl like a reptile, and the others 

 were not slow to laugh at his expense. The first symp- 

 toms of danger were several large fissures which oc- 

 curred in the crust we were wading through. The 

 water in them was perfectly clear, and a line of many 

 yards let down reached no bottom. These fissures be- 

 came more and more numerous as w r e advanced, until 

 the vegetable mass abruptly terminated in a lake of 

 limpid water full of eels. The border was rather more 

 solid than the mass left behind, and all sat down to 

 rest, from the great exertion it had required to drag 

 ourselves for more than a mile and a half through one 

 of the worst swamps I ever crossed. As it was getting 

 quite a fashionable hour for dinner, and our appetite 

 was becoming more keen every minute, we determined 

 not to postpone it any longer; cold yams, taros, and 

 fowls, washed down with a bottle of Australian wine 

 mixed with water from the lake, constituted our meal. 



The sides of the lake were covered with scarlet myr- 

 tles and a fine feathery palm (Kentia exorrhiza, Herm. 

 Wendl.) closely allied to those of New Zealand and Nor- 

 folk Island, but different. There were, besides, many 

 other plants, too numerous to be enumerated here, that 



