324 Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
Rising precipitously from the sea, with its 
high, mountainous sides clothed, in parts, with 
rich tropical verdure, the island, even when 
some miles distant, presents a noble and pic¬ 
turesque appearance, and as the ship draws 
nearer and opens up the various bays and in¬ 
dentations new beauties are constantly revealed. 
But the eye of the beholder is at once attracted 
to the principal feature, an irregular chain of 
lofty craggy mountains surrounded by clusters 
of low, gracefully rounded hills, from among 
which they start up with extraordinary abrupt¬ 
ness. Two miles back from Ahurei Bay this 
range suggests that Nature has had a fit of 
violent hysterics, for strangely-shaped, fantastic 
pinnacles and jagged broken spires, denuded of 
the slightest vestige of verdure, send down 
twisted and distorted spurs mantled in glorious 
green, to hold as in an amphitheatre the placid 
waters of Ahurei. Seaward the entrance is 
defended by a stretch of reefs which, dangerous 
in themselves to sailing vessels, yet form a 
perfect sea barrier to the harbour they en¬ 
compass, access to which is given by a narrow 
and somewhat tortuous channel. But once 
inside the ship is in a lake. 
