CHAP. XXXI.] THE WATELAI CHANNEL. 235 



ductive of insects or birds of interest, so we made another 

 attempt to get on. As soon as we got a little away from 

 the land we had a fair wind, and in six hours' sailing 

 reached the entrance of the Watelai channel, which divides 

 the most northerly from the middle portion of Arn. At 

 its mouth this was about half a mile wide, but soon 

 narrowed, and a mile or two on it assumed entirely the 

 aspect of a river about the width of the Thames at London, 

 winding among low but undulating and often hilly country. 

 The scene was exactly such as might be expected in the 

 interior of a continent. The channel continued of a unilbvm 

 average width, with reaches and sinuous bends, one bank 

 being often precipitous, or even forming vertical cliffs, 

 while the other was flat and apparently alluvial ; and it 

 was only the pure salt-water, and the absence of any 

 stream but the slight flux and reflux of the tide, that would 

 enable a person to tell that he was navigating a strait and 

 not a river. The wind was fair, and carried us along, with 

 occasional assistance from our oars, till about three in the 

 afternoon, when we landed where a little brook formed 

 two or three basins in the coral rock, and then fell in 

 a ujiniature cascade into the saltwater river. Here we 

 bathed and cooked our dinner, and enjoyed ourselves 

 lazily till sunset, when we pursued our way for two hours 

 more, and then moored our little vessel to an overhanging 

 tree for the night. 



