280 EXCUKSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 
The young men made several hunting excursions 
during the fourteen days of our stay on Catua, and I, 
being associated with them in all their pleasures, made 
generally one of the party. These were, besides, the 
sole occasions on which I could add to my collections, 
whilst on these barren sands. Only two of these trips 
afforded incidents worth relating. 
The first, which was made to the interior of the 
wooded island of Catua, was not a very successful one. 
We were twelve in number, all armed with guns and 
long hunting-knives. Long before sunrise, my friends 
woke me up from my hammock, where I lay, as usual, 
in the clothes worn during the day ; and after taking 
each a cup-full of casha§a and ginger (a very general 
practice in early morning on the sandbanks), we com- 
menced our walk. The waning moon still lingered in 
the clear sky, and a profound stillness pervaded sleep- 
ing camp, forest, and stream. Along the line of ranches 
glimmered the fires made by each party to dry turtle- 
eggs for food, the eggs being spread on little wooden 
stages over the smoke. The distance to the forest from 
our place of starting was about tw^o miles, being nearly 
the whole length of the sandbank, which was also a 
very broad one ; the highest part, where it was covered 
with a thicket of dwarf willows, mimosas, and arrow 
grass, lying near the ranches. We loitered much on 
the way, and the day dawned whilst we were yet on 
the road : the sand at this early hour feeling quite cold 
to the naked feet. As soon as we were able to distinguish 
things, the surface of the praia was seen to be dotted 
with small black objects. These were newly-hatched 
