BAT OF ISLANDS AND NEW ZEALAND COAST. 319 



sides ; the fourth opening on to a dazzling white beach 

 sloping gently down to the sea. Looking seaward, 

 amidst the dancing, sparkling wavelets, rose numerous 

 tree-clothed islets, making a perfectly beautiful seascape. 

 On either side of the stretch of beach fantastic masses 

 of rock lay about, as if scattered by some tremendous 

 explosion. Where the sea reached them, they were 

 covered with untold myriads of oysters, ready to be eaten 

 and of delicious flavour. 



What need to say more ? With oyster-feeding, 

 fishing, bathing, tree-climbing, tea-making, song-singing, 

 the hours fled with pitiless haste, so that, before we had 

 half emptied the brimming cup of joys proffered us, the 

 slanting rays of the setting sun warned us to return 

 lest we should get "bushed " in the dark. We came on 

 board rejoicing, laden with spoils of flowers and fish, 

 with two-thirds of our money still in our pockets, and 

 full of happy memories of one of the most delightful 

 days in our whole lives. 



A long night's sound sleep was rudely broken into 

 in the morning by the cry of " Man the windlass." 

 Having got all we wanted, we were bound away to finish, 

 if luck were with us, the lading of our good ship from 

 the teeming waters of the Solander grounds. I know 

 the skipper's hopes were high, for he never tired of 

 telHng how, when in command of a new ship, he once 

 fished the whole of his cargo— six thousand barrels 

 of sperm oil — from the neighbourhood to which we 

 were now bound. He always admitted, though, that 

 the weather he experienced was unprecedented. Still, 

 nothing could shake his belief in the wonderful numbers 

 of sperm whales to be found on the south coasts of 

 New Zealand, which faith was well warranted, since he 

 had there won from the waves, not onlv the value of 



