ad gone another mile we found ourselves in a stream about a
hundred yards wide and only six feet deep. The mangrove-swamp, however,
had ceased; and the grassy banks, shelving gently down to the water on
each side, ended in a narrow strip of reddish sandy beach. The bush
here was very dense and the vegetation extremely varied, whilst the
foliage seemed to embrace literally all the colours of the rainbow.
Greens of course predominated, but they were of every conceivable shade,
from the pale delicate tint of the young budding leaf to an olive which
was almost black. Then there was the ruddy bronze of leaves which
appeared just ready to fall; and thickly interspersed among the greens
were large bushes with long lance-shaped leaves of a beautifully
delicate ashen-grey tint; others glowed in a rich mass of flaming
scarlet; whilst others again had a leaf thickly covered with short white
sheeny satin-like fur--I cannot otherwise describe it--which gleamed and
flashed in the sun-rays as though the leaves were of polished silver.
Some of the trees were thickly covered with blossoms exquisite both in
form and colour; while as to the passion-plant and other flowering
creepers, they were here, there, and everywhere in such countless
varieties as would have sent a botanist into the seventh heaven of
delight.

That this vast extent of jungle was not tenantless we had frequent
assurance in the sudden sharp cracking of twigs and branches, as well as
other more distant and more mysterious sounds; an occasional glimpse of
a monkey was caught high aloft in the gently swaying branches of some
forest giant; and birds of gorgeous plumage but more or less discordant
cries constantly flitted from bough to bough, or swept in rapid flight
across the stream.

We were so enchanted with the beauty of this secluded creek that though
the time was flitting rapidly away Mr Austin could not resist the
temptation to push a little further on, notwithstanding the fact that we
had already penetrated higher than a ship, even of small tonnage, could
possibly reach; and the men, nothing loath, accordingly paddled gently
ahead for another mile. At this point we discovered that the tide was
met and stopped by a stream of thick muddy fresh water; the creek or
river, whichever you choose to call it, had narrowed in until it was
only about a hundred feet across; and the water had shoaled to four
feet. The trees in many places grew right down to the water's edg