94 DENSITY OF THE FOREST. 



and when coming to a sandy ravine making a rough chart, 

 and I was thus able to pilot myself back to the barracks, 

 though more than once I miscalculated and found myself on 

 the sea shore. The best plan, however, was blazing the 

 trees, which obviated much of the difficulty. A ship's 

 captain boasted that he could walk from Coal Point straight 

 down to Victoria (the settlement) through the centre of the 

 island and scorned the idea of taking a compass with him. 

 " He could not lose himself in such a small triangular island 

 only nine miles long by five broad, the idea was too 

 preposterous," so one fine morning away he started ; he 

 did not appear at his destination by the next morning, so a 

 search party from the Man-of-War then in the harbour 

 started to find him. After a long time they came upon him 

 thoroughly exhausted. He had found many of the creeks 

 and swamps impassable and in trying to get round them lost 

 his bearings ; and being unable to see the sky he appeared to 

 have wandered continually in a circle. In crossing one of 

 these creeks when struggling in the mud he suddenly 

 perceived what he thought was a fallen log but which 

 proved to be a huge alligator calmly eyeing him. He 

 shouted and waved his hat but for some time the brute 

 remained motionless. At last to his immense relief it slowly 

 moved away. 



I was much struck with the size and height of some 

 of the camphor trees, the Rajah had two of the largest 

 measured, they were over 300 feet high and the boles 

 could easily have concealed a coach and four. 



I have very little to record in the sporting way ; 

 although tracks of deer and pig and other game were 

 found quite fresh in many places, it was most difficult to 



