amed
Carpophaga concinna, and is found only in a few small islands, where,
however, it abounds. It is the same species which in the island of Banda
is called the nutmeg-pigeon, from its habit of devouring the fruits,
the seed or nutmeg being thrown up entire and uninjured. Though these
pigeons have a narrow beak, yet their jaws and throat are so extensible
that they can swallow fruits of very large size. I had before shot a
species much smaller than this one, which had a number of hard globular
palm-fruits in its crop, each more than an inch in diameter.

A little further the path divided into two, one leading along the beach,
and across mangrove and sago swamps the other rising to cultivated
grounds. We therefore returned, and taking a fresh departure from
the village, endeavoured to ascend the hills and penetrate into the
interior. The path, however, was a most trying one. Where there was
earth, it was a deposit of reddish clay overlying the rock, and was worn
so smooth by the attrition of naked feet that my shoes could obtain no
hold on the sloping surface. A little farther we came to the bare rock,
and this was worse, for it was so rugged and broken, and so honeycombed
and weatherworn into sharp points and angles, that my boys, who had
gone barefooted all their lives, could not stand it. Their feet began to
bleed, and I saw that if I did not want them completely lamed it would
be wise to turn lack. My own shoes, which were rather thin, were but a
poor protection, and would soon have been cut to pieces; yet our little
naked guides tripped along with the greatest ease and unconcern, and
seemed much astonished at our effeminacy in not being able to take a
walk which to them was a perfectly agreeable one. During the rest of our
stay in the island we were obliged to confine ourselves to the vicinity
of the shore and the cultivated grounds, and those more level portions
of the forest where a little soil had accumulated and the rock had been
less exposed to atmospheric action.

The island of Ke (pronounced exactly as the letter K, but erroneously
spelt in our maps Key or Ki) is long and narrow, running in a north and
south direction, and consists almost entirely of rock and mountain. It
is everywhere covered with luxuriant forests, and in its bays and inlets
the sand is of dazzling whiteness, resulting from the decomposition of
the coralline limestone of which it is entirely composed. In all the
little swampy inlets and v