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 we 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 
