124 
To Sdnga-Tdnga and Back . 
At a brook of the sweetest water, purling over 
the cleanest and brightest of golden sands, we filled 
the canteens, this being the last opportunity for 
some time. Forest walks are thirsty work during 
the hot season; the air is close, fetid, and damp 
with mire; the sea-breeze has no power to enter, 
and perspiration streams from every pore. After 
heavy rains it is still worse, the surface of the land 
is changed, and paths become lines of dark pud¬ 
dles ; the nullahs, before dry, roll muddy, dark- 
brown streams, and their mouths streak the sea 
with froth and scum. Hardly a living object 
meets the eye, and only the loud, whirring flight of 
some large bird breaks the dreary silence. The 
music of the surf now sounded like the song of the 
sea-shell as we crossed another rough prism of 
stone and bush, whose counter-slope fell gently 
into a sand-flat overgrown with Ipomaa and other 
bright flowering plants. After walking about an 
hour (equal to 2*50 miles) between south and 
south-west, we saluted the pleasant aspect of 
0aAa<nra with a general cheer. Northwards lay 
Point Ipizarala, southways Nyonye, both looking 
like tree-clumps rising from the waves. I could 
not sufficiently admire, and I shall never forget the 
exquisite loveliness of land and sea; the graceful 
curve of the beach, a hundred feet broad, fining 
imperceptibly away till lost in the convexity of 
waters. The morning sun, half way to the zenith, 
