METHOD OF CLIMBING TREES. 175 



From this point, we climbed up a small hill on our 

 right, and found ourselves separated from the main 

 hill of the island by a very pretty valley opening to 

 the south, covered with long waving grass, and 

 patches and skirts of woods and thickets. The 

 south side of the hill also was covered with grassy 

 slopes. From the little hill on which we stood, we 

 saw the Murray Islands to the southward, with 

 immense reefs stretching from Erroob in that direc- 

 tion, and also large reefs running several miles to 

 the north-east, and ending near a large sand bank, 

 which Duppa called Merad. 



Descending into the grassy valley, we found a very 

 good native path running along it across the island 

 from north to south, a distance here of about a mile. 

 In the middle of Treacherous Bay, at a little bight 

 called Beeka, we met on our return several natives 

 near an old hut and a grove of cocoa-nuts. We offered 

 them cigars to get us some young cocoa-nuts, and a 

 boy literally walked up one of the trees, without any 

 other assistance than his hands, to get us some. He 

 kept his body very much bent, and his hands and 

 feet almost close together, the one grasping, the 

 other pressing the tree, which slanted a little, but 

 not very greatly, from the perpendicular. On arriv- 

 ing at Keriam we found Mr. Millery and Mr. 

 Macgillivray, with his Port Essington boy, Neinmal, 

 surrounded by the Erroobians, and on excellent 

 terms with them, having amused them by imitations 

 of Australian songs and dances. They appeared to 

 take a great fancy to Neinmal, which he did not 



