430 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDUN ARCHIPELAGO. 



said to inbabit that high point, and whom he be- 

 lieved we should certainly meet. But we gained the 

 summit without meeting any unearthly intruders. 

 There I found the whole bay and its shores spread 

 out before me lite a map. The broad coral banks 

 bordering several of the points and islands were of a 

 light-clay color in the dark-blue water, which was 

 only here and there ruffled by the light morning 

 breezes then moving over its limpid surface. Tliis 

 bay is said to closely resemble the bay of Bio Janeiro 

 by those who have seen both. To the north it has a 

 long ann^ but on the south its boundary ia sharply 

 defined when viewed from the lofty point where I 

 stood, while off the mouth of the bay was the high 

 island of Mensalla, its hills making a sharply-ser- 

 rated line against the sky. 



On another occasion I made an excui-sion in a 

 boat some six miles toward the noi-thern end of the 

 bay to look at some layers of coah Leaving the 

 l>oat we went a short distance up the side of a range 

 of hills on the northwest side of the bay, and, crossing 

 two small ridges that ran Hown to the shore, found 

 the bed of a brook, which at that season was dry. 

 In one of its sides were seen the layers of coal, ap- 

 proximately parallel to the suiface of the hills, and 

 resting on clay schists, to which they appeared per- 

 fectly conformable. Grossing another low ridge, we 

 came do^vn into the bed of another brook, where the 

 same strata were again seen. The coal here is very 

 impure, except near the middle layers, and appears 

 to be of little commercial value j neither is the pros- 

 pect flatteiing for finding other strata of a better qual- 



