252 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IY. 
sand on this cool morning. The sky was cloudless ; the 
just-risen sun was hidden behind the dark mass of 
woods on Shimuni, but the long line of forest to the 
west, on Baria, with its plumy decorations of palms, 
was lighted up with his yellow, horizontal rays. A faint 
chorus of singing birds reached the ears from across 
the water, and flocks of gulls and plovers were crying 
plaintively over the swelling banks of the praia, where 
their eggs lay in nests made in little hollows of the 
sand. Tracks of stray turtles were visible on the smooth 
white surface of the praia. The animals which thus 
wander from the main body are lawful prizes of the 
sentinels ; they had caught in this way two before sun- 
rise, one of which we had for dinner. In my walk I 
disturbed several pairs of the chocolate and drab- 
coloured wild goose (Anser jubatus) which set off to run 
along the edge of the water. Th.e enjoyment one feels 
in rambling over these free, open spaces, is no doubt 
enhanced by the novelty of the scene, the change being 
very great from the monotonous landscape of forest 
which everjrwhere else presents itself. 
On arriving at the edge of the forest I mounted the 
sentinel's stage, just in time to see the turtles retreating 
to the water on the opposite side of the sand-bank, 
after having laid their eggs. The sight was well worth 
the trouble of ascending the shaky ladder. They were 
about a mile off, but the surface of the sands was black- 
ened with the multitudes which were waddling towards 
the river ; the margin of the praia was rather steep, and 
they all seemed to tumble head first down the declivity 
into the water. 
