hed the boundless sea, lashed by the wind
into white and curling waves; whilst to the east of me lay a clear calm
unruffled lake, studded with little islands. To the north or north-east I
could, even with a good telescope, see no limits to this lake, and, with
the exception of the numerous beautiful islands with which it was
studded, I could, even from the commanding position which I occupied,
distinguish nothing like rising land anywhere between north by east and
south-east. The lake had a glassy and fairy-like appearance, and I sat
down alone on the lofty eminence to contemplate this great water which
the eye of European now for the first time rested on. I looked seaward,
and it appeared as if nature had heaped up the narrow and lofty sandy
barrier on which I stood to shut out from the eyes of man the lovely and
fairy-like land which lay beyond it.

At length I rose and returned to the party. The news of my discovery
filled all with hope; and, our miserable breakfast having been hurriedly
despatched, I selected three men to accompany me in my first examination
of the shores of this inland sea. When we had gained the top of the
sandhills the surprise of these men was as great as my own, and they
begged me to allow them to return and endeavour by the united efforts of
the party to carry one of the whale-boats over the intervening range, and
at once to launch it on this body of water.

I however deemed it more prudent in the first instance to select the best
route along which to move the whale-boat, as well as to choose a spot
which afforded facilities for launching it. In pursuance of this
determination we descended the eastern side of the sandhills which
abruptly fell in that direction with a slope certainly not much exceeding
an angle of 45 degrees. I now found that the water did not approach so
near the foot of the hills as I had imagined, but that immediately at
their base lay extensive plains of mud and sand, at times evidently
flooded by the sea; for on them lay dead shells of many kinds and sizes,
as well as large travelled blocks of coral. The water here appeared to be
about a mile distant; it was also apparently boundless in an east and
north-east direction: and was studded with islands.

REMARKABLE PLAINS. DELUSION FROM MIRAGE.

We still all felt convinced that it was water we saw, for the shadows of
the low hills near it, as well as those of the trees upon them, could be
distinctly traced on the unruffled