94 
DENSITY OF TIIE FOREST. 
and when coming to a sandy ravine making a rough chartj 
and I was thus able to pilot myself back to the barracks, 
though more than once I miscalculated and found myself on 
the sea shore. The best plan, however, was blazing the 
trees, which obviated much of the difficulty. A ship's 
captain boasted that he could walk from Coal Point straight 
down to Victoria (the setdement) through the centre of the 
island and scorned the idea of taking a compass with him. 
" He could not lose himself in such a small triangular island 
only nine miles long by five broad, the idea was too 
preposterous," so one fine morning away he started ; he 
did not appear at his destination by the next morning, so a 
search party from the Man-of-War then in the harbour 
started to find htm. After a long time they came upon him 
thoroughly exhausted. He had found many of the creeks 
and swamps impassable and in trying to get round them lost 
his bearings ; and being unable to see the sky he appeared to 
have wandered continually in a circle. In crossing one of 
these creeks when f^truggling in the mud he suddenly 
perceived what he thought was a fallen log but which 
proved to be a huge alligator calmly eyeing him. He 
shouted and waved his hat but for some time the brute 
remained motionless. At last to his immense relief it slowly 
moved away. 
I was much struck with the size and height of some 
of the camphor trees, the Rajah had two of the largest 
measured, they were over 300 feet high and the boles 
could easily have concealed a coach and four. 
I have very little to record in the sporting way ; 
although tracks of deer and pig and other game were 
found quite fresh in many places, it was most difficult to 
