186 CIRCUIT OF THE ISLAND. 



volved, we reached the summit, which on the south 

 side was bare, but surrounded with lofty trees all 

 round the northern half, which shut out the view in 

 that direction. There was a slight hollow on the 

 summit, surrounded by a ridge of higher ground, 

 but I could not say that it had been a crater ; 

 neither was the hill regularly conical, but rather a 

 broken ridge, higher in the centre than elsewhere. 

 The rock was a heavy, dark, rather crystalline lava, 

 or trap, slightly cellular occasionally. On descend- 

 ing, we found in the water-course in the bottom of 

 the gully, leading out to the mangrove cove, some 

 water-holes, containing very good water, with a little 

 trickling stream from one to the other. Abundance 

 of water to supply the island the whole year round 

 might be preserved, either by digging holes or 

 raising dams in these gullies, and thus storing the 

 rains which fall during the N.W. monsoon. 



We were now in the little valley in which we had 

 been with Duppa the other day, and had thus made 

 the circuit of all but the extreme east end of the 

 island. As we felt rather tired, we left that for 

 another day, and returned by the path to Keriam. 

 Here we found many natives assembled, who imme- 

 diately supplied us with cocoa-nut water, and seemed 

 very much surprised when w r e told them we had 

 been on the hill which they called " Pasaer," and 

 they were evidently puzzled to know what we could 

 possibly want up there. We saw in our walk to-day 

 very few land birds, consisting only of three quails 



