CH. IX.] A Walk inshore. 1 9 1 



mai'ket-place and obtained a nice cool bath previous to 

 returning for breakfast on board. About two o'clock we 

 aU returned, and leaving the boat in a creek a little 

 beyond the headman's house, we bore across the plain to 

 the right through an orchard-like grove of teak-trees. I 

 had stopped to load my gun before starting, and when I 

 hastened on to rejoin my friends, I found them at the 

 foot of a dead teak-tree, where they had kindly awaited 

 my coming to point out a pretty pink-flowered orchid 

 which was clinging to the naked branches right in the 

 blazing sunshine, and flowering most profusely. 



We at last came to an undulating plain of coarse 

 " laUang " grass four feet in height, while the soil at our 

 feet was thickly paved with vitrified slag or scoriae, the 

 product of the island during its volcanic epoch. It was 

 very hot, and the walking over the sharp stones, hidden 

 as they were in the tall grass, was, to say the least of it, 

 very troublesome. We had expected to find deer or wild 

 pig in the patches of thick jungle which occur here and 

 there, but the dogs were too wild and did not hunt the 

 ground well. Along the edge of a bit of old forest we 

 obtained an occasional shot at a bird or two, and amongst 

 others we secured a golden oriole with black wing, tips 

 and tail, a small hawk, and a large greenish paroquet, 

 together with several pigeons. The black and white and 

 large blue pigeons were extremely plentiful here, as also 

 were white paroquets, but these last were too wary to 

 allow us within range. 



I made several dips into the patches of old forest in 

 search of plants, but nothing of interest was seen. Or- 

 chids appeared to be very rare, and with the exception 

 of a dingy yellow-flowered cleisostoma which grew rather 

 plentifully on the teak trees, nothing more was seen. 

 We had had a long and wearying walk, and it was about 



