ers, he would have simply lighted
fires all around his camp, which would have sufficed for its defense;
but the convicts would be rather attracted than terrified by the flames,
and it was, therefore, better to be surrounded by the profound darkness
of night.

The watch was, however, carefully organized. Two of the settlers were
to watch together, and every two hours it was agreed that they should
be relieved by their comrades. And so, notwithstanding his wish to the
contrary, Herbert was exempted from guard. Pencroft and Gideon Spilett
in one party, the engineer and Neb in another, mounted guard in turns
over the camp.

The night, however, was but of few hours. The darkness was due rather to
the thickness of the foliage than to the disappearance of the sun.
The silence was scarcely disturbed by the howling of jaguars and the
chattering of the monkeys, the latter appearing to particularly irritate
Master Jup. The night passed without incident, and on the next day, the
15th of February, the journey through the forest, tedious rather than
difficult, was continued. This day they could not accomplish more than
six miles, for every moment they were obliged to cut a road with their
hatchets.

Like true settlers, the colonists spared the largest and most beautiful
trees, which would besides have cost immense labor to fell, and the
small ones only were sacrificed, but the result was that the road took a
very winding direction, and lengthened itself by numerous detours.

During the day Herbert discovered several new specimens not before met
with in the island, such as the tree-fern, with its leaves spread out
like the waters of a fountain, locust-trees, on the long pods of
which the onagers browsed greedily, and which supplied a sweet pulp
of excellent flavor. There, too, the colonists again found groups of
magnificent kauries, their cylindrical trunks, crowded with a cone
of verdure, rising to a height of two hundred feet. These were the
tree-kings of New Zealand, as celebrated as the cedars of Lebanon.

As to the fauna, there was no addition to those species already known to
the hunters. Nevertheless, they saw, though unable to get near them, a
couple of those large birds peculiar to Australia, a sort of cassowary,
called emu, five feet in height, and with brown plumage, which belong
to the tribe of waders. Top darted after them as fast as his four legs
could carry him, but the emus distanced him with ease, so prodigious w