the south of the hummock, and we saw that,
upon returning from it to the boat, we should only need to pass close to
the eastward of the hummock to hit off the correct trail.

Accordingly we descended to the surface of the reef, and headed for the
mysterious brown patch, which we soon reached, some suspicion of its
true character having dawned upon us, even before we arrived at the
spot, from the circumstance that, as we approached, our nostrils became
cognisant of a "most ancient and fish-like smell". The suspicion that
we had formed was confirmed upon our arrival by the discovery that the
object of our curiosity was a great bed of oysters, hove up and exposed
to the air by the convulsion of the previous night. But, fond as I am
of oysters, I did not care to tackle any of these; for, apart from the
fact that many of them were already dead, I did not altogether like the
appearance of them. They were very much larger than the ordinary edible
oyster; and to my mind they did not look quite wholesome. Saunders,
however, was far less fastidious than either Gurney or me; he found one
or two that, being immersed in a shallow pool of salt water, were still
alive, and announced his intention of trying them. Accordingly,
producing a strong clasp knife, he contrived, with some difficulty, to
open one; and no sooner had he forced the shells apart than I guessed
that we had all stumbled upon a fortune, in extent probably "beyond the
dreams of avarice!" For as the shells parted, exposing the fish, three
or four small bead-like objects became revealed, that I instantly
recognised as pearls. The oysters were undoubtedly pearl oysters; and
the millions of shells that lay at our feet doubtless contained gems
enough to make us all rich for the remainder of our days!

Not to be behindhand with Saunders, I seized one of the bivalves,
already dead and with the shells gaping apart, and tore it open; but
although the shell was lined with beautiful lustrous mother-o'-pearl, it
was barren of gems. Flinging this away, I tried another, and a third
and fourth, with a like result; a fifth yielded nine small pearls about
the size of duck shot; numbers six and seven proved barren; but the
eighth surrendered to my eager grasp a magnificent pearl, perfectly
globular, quite half an inch in diameter, and, when cleaned, of
exquisite lustre and colour. Gurney and Saunders meanwhile had been as
busily engaged as myself, and between them had secured