exquisite dainty, in his opinion), rose lazily, and gathering up his fishing nets, and the cocoa-nut shell in which he had procured fresh water to allay his thirst during his repast, marched deliberately off, and was lost to sight. But, reprieved as we were from instant destruction, we were helpless to move away, and consequently my poor mollusk inhabitant perished more from suffocation than hunger. You do not perhaps know that the gills or lungs of these creatures of the sea are not calculated to breathe for a long continuance in the upper air, in which they are eventually almost as much suffocated as you would be by immersion in their native element. The great Creator of this wondrous universe, who has given you everything so richly to enjoy on land, has been no less mindful of the wants and pleasures of the smallest creature that inhabits the vast seas. He has enabled both to live and enjoy their natural conditions, but they must necessarily perish when deprived of them, whether by accident or man's violence. My poor companion speedily sank under his sufferings and expired-the burning heat of the blazing sun overhead, the arid sand beneath, and the dry atmosphere of the upper air, being a sad exchange for a delicate creature used to the cool blue waters of the deep sea, whose shady depths and wide coral reefs, thickly studded with

crustaceans and mollusks, had hitherto formed his happy home.

'In the course of a little time, during that tropical afternoon, I heard the flapping of huge wings, and beheld a large bird, called the frigate bird, a frequent visitor of these islands of the Pacific. It is a very beautiful creature, with its elegant neck arched like that of a swan, and its forked swallowtail stretched gracefully downwards, like the furled plumes of the peacock at rest. But this lovely bird is as greedy and voracious as it is handsome; for it is the terrible winged enemy of the poor flying-fish and bonitos, who rise from the water perchance, in order to escape the hungry, armed jaws of the shark, only to fall an easy prey to the albatross or the frigate bird, ever on the watch for their food. My poor fishy inhabitant, though dead, was speedily picked out of my pearly chambers by this keen enemy, to whom, no doubt, he formed as dainty a tit-bit as our companions had to the cunning islander. After he had finished his savoury morsel, which was in a very short space of time, he spread his enormous pinions, and puffed out his red pouch under his throat like a huge crimson bladder, and soared up far into the sky (as these birds can reach a greater height than any others of that latitude), and he was soon lost to my sight in the sunny air.

F

'And now I lay there empty and alone on the upper beach, too far from the sea for the reach of the waves, and quite considered my fate settled for life. I had occasional glimpses of the natives, who came to the shore for fishing purposes, their cunning and dexterity fully making up for the want of better tackle, for their nets were made from a species of sea-grass, and their hooks rudely notched and shaped from the teeth of sharks, the bones of animals, or of pieces of pearly shells, and suspended to a strong line made from the fibres of the breadfruit tree. The fish they caught were generally cooked in the same primitive fashion as that I first witnessed-namely, in a pit of heated stones, being first well enveloped in plantain leaves. Sometimes, by way of variety I suppose, they were dressed in a still more original way, in a huge vessel composed of one valve of the gigantic tridacna,—an enormous bivalve, which is sometimes found embedded in the coral reefs, and is of sufficient size for such a purpose. This large and beautifully marked shell, which was singularly well adapted to their purpose, they filled with cold water, and then continually dropped into it red-hot stones till the water almost boiled, a tedious process, which was only resorted to on rare occasions, when their principal chiefs were to be regaled. When they had been unusually

fortunate in their fishing, they carefully wrapped up the remainder of their finny spoil in plantain leaves, and carried them off.

'The natives of these islands are universally esteemed as the most treacherous and barbarous among all the savages of Polynesia. They are thorough cannibals, and devour all their captives taken in war, after having, by a very refinement of cruelty, fattened them up by good food and careful attention. Many a vessel has gone down by their means; and the crew escaping from the perils of the sea, have only reached land, after buffeting with the stormy waves, to fall a prey to the ferocious cruelty of their own species. The crafty islanders, who are as much at home in the sea as on land, if they cannot surprise and master the crews by open force, have recourse to cunning to accomplish their object. They wait till a good strong wind blows towards the land, and lashes up the breakers on the coral reef into foam, and then they swim out to the ill-fated vessel, and, diving underneath, cut her cables, and leave her at the slender mercy of the raging billows and sharp-toothed coral rocks, when she soon falls a helpless prey into the hands of the crafty savages.

'The vessels which touch at this well-known and dreaded group of islands, are consequently well

aware of its evil character, and are only tempted by the hope of gain; and when they are prudent, and bring a wary and never-ceasing caution to aid their undoubted strength, they find a profitable return for the risk. The harvest which generally induces them to visit these islands is the trepang-an article of food much valued by the Chinese and Indians. This trepang, or "biche de mer," as it is called, consists of a species of sea-slug, which crawls about on the various coral reefs; the finest and most valuable dwelling chiefly on the deep-sea reefs, far beyond tidal influence. This creature, the seacucumber as it is called, is about six inches long, and very much resembles a gigantic slug in its shape and its slow movements, except that it is adorned with a crown of feathery plumes.

'The natives catch it in extraordinary numbers, by rowing out to the distant barrier reefs in their light bark prahus or canoes, and then send down divers, who gather it on the reefs below. When they have obtained as many as their canoe will carry, they bring them back to the shore, and cut them open, drying them over the fire in large shells, or perhaps by chance some iron pan they may have obtained from the plunder of some unfortunate wreck. They then smoke them with the vapour of a native shrub, and leave them to become dry and leathery, on