alities of which I was unacquainted.

Innumerable birds of the most beautiful plumage sported among the trees,
and a few of them sang very sweetly, but for the most part the sounds
which they emitted were quite unlike any that I had heard before.

I saw no traces of animals or reptiles, great or small; and none
whatever of man.

I walked quite to the head of the ravine, and then turned off to the
right, with the object of passing round the base of the mountain; but,
after an hour's walk, I found that I had my labour for my pains, for I
came out upon the edge of the cliff on the north-western side of the
island, and now discovered that at that spot it not only extended for
some distance to the southward, but swept round the northern base of the
mountain inland, rising sheer like a wall for quite a hundred feet.
After searching unavailingly for some time for a point at which it might
be possible for me to pass, I was obliged to give it up and retrace my
steps.

Reaching the head of the ravine once more, I now struck off to the left
with the intention of passing round to the eastward. Another walk of
about an hour, during which my progress was much impeded, as it had been
on the opposite side, by the dense undergrowth, and I came out upon a
small platform on the extreme eastern side of the mountain. This
platform terminated on my left at the edge of the cliff, and ahead it
gradually narrowed until there was barely room for a man to pass, and
not then unless he had remarkably steady nerves: for on the right rose a
perpendicular precipice, and on the left was the cliff-edge, with the
lagoon nearly two hundred feet below. From my present position I was
now able to see that this ledge was the only available point of passage
from the northern to the southern side of the island unless one chose
fairly to scale the mountain, which I was convinced would be a work of
considerable difficulty, on account of the thickness of the bush or
undergrowth.

Along this narrow ledge, then, I proceeded to take my way; and, after a
perilous journey of half a mile, came out upon safe ground once more.
Half an hour afterwards I reached the southern side of the island, and
clambering with considerable difficulty to the top of a precipitous
knoll, I obtained an uninterrupted view of the whole southern side of
the island. It extended from the point upon which I stood a distance of
quite twelve miles, running nearly due north and south, and w