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soft fresh breeze came in delightfully. The scene that was 
soon displayed before me as I lay in bed, made me forget 
sleep and all else for the time being. The moon, then in the 
beginning of the last quarter slowly rose from the Ocean» 
lighting it up till the crest of every wave showed molten silver, 
and to me it appeared to emerge between St, Anns and Stag 
Island, both of which lay clearly outlined. Heavy banks of 
clouds were massed on the horizon, half in shadow, half like 
sunlit snow, and it needed little imagination to trace out 
endless likeness to things on earth in the fantastic shapes they 
assumed. Still more transitory were they than even mundane 
objects, for before I had well decided on the form of some 
turreted castle or the outline of a polar bear, lo ! as by magic, 
they were gone, and left but ruined crags, or mountain masses. 
“ Pelion on Ossa piled.” 
“ Long before daylight Mr Horne and myself were up and 
about, and our luggage pretty nearly filled the boat that took 
us off to the Frigate. Sir Arthur Gordon who is also an early 
bird, arrived very soon after with his Secretary and Mr Com- 
missioner Franklin, and we wore soon out on the ocean. 
“ We arrived at Praslin about mid day, but could not steam 
direct to it on account of the dangerous rocks, but had to 
make a detour round lie Curieuse, into a beautiful bay formed 
by that Island and Praslin. 
“ These rocks have a singular appearance, remindiug me of 
old Druidical ruins I have seen in France and England. 
‘‘ We anchored about threo quarters of a mile from the 
shore, and soon the Governor, Mr A. Gordon, Dr Micklejohn, 
the Surgeon of the Frigate, and myself, landed at Curieuse. 
‘‘We were received by Mr George Forbes, an old Scotch- 
man who has lived there over forty years. We visited his 
house where he shewed us his collection of shells, and gave us 
some crystals he had found in the granite. Then we went on 
a tour of inspection through the Establishment for Lepers. 
“ Small comfortable huts are erected near the sea shore, 
shaded by Palms and Coco nut trees, and each contains a cot 
and some plain furniture, ustensils, otc., and were very neat 
and clean. 
