ay at it, chewing, and
throwing the refuse into the basket.

Mr Hooker was highly pleased with the collection of birds and insects
which he had made. Engaging the services of two more natives to carry
them, we returned to the boat, in which, in the course of a day's sail,
we reached the _Dugong_.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

VOYAGE CONTINUED.

Sailing from Dobbo, a number of our mop-headed friends accompanied us to
sea in their long canoes--curious, savage-looking boats, the bow and
stern rising up six or seven feet high, decorated with shells and waving
plumes of cassowary's feathers. They were all talking, laughing, and
shouting at once, and when they at length, after receiving a few
farewell presents, bid us good-bye, we felt as if we had passed out of a
tempest of noise into a calm, so apparently deep was the silence which
reigned round us. In two days, passing the Key Islands, the inhabitants
of which are very much like those of Aru, we arrived in sight of a lofty
volcano, from the summit of which wreaths of white smoke were even then
ascending. On approaching more closely, we saw that there were two
other mountains near it, clothed with vegetation to their very summits.
A fair breeze enabled us to enter the land-locked harbour of Banda. The
water below our keel was so transparent, that we could see, at a depth
of seven or eight fathoms, the smallest objects on the sand, and watch
the living corals at work. We sailed on through narrow channels, having
on one side lofty cliffs rising out of the sea.

Besides three large islands, there are several others, which form what
are known as the Banda group. The largest is Lontar, or Great Banda--a
crescent-shaped island, about six miles long and a mile and a half wide.
Within the circle of which this island and two others joined to it form
an arc, lie three more, the highest and most remarkable of which is the
Grunong Api, or the Burning Mountain. It is an ever active volcano,
about two thousand three hundred feet in height. We passed close under
its base, and looking up, saw cloud-like masses of steam and sulphureous
acid gas rising from its summit. On the Lontar shore rose up
perpendicular crags from two to three hundred feet high, but everywhere
covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, the trees and shrubs having
their roots in the crevices, and hanging down in broad sheets of the
brightest green. As we sailed on we perceived lofty palms rising amid
the ma