Angustifolia in splendid flower, many of the clusters occupying a space
of three feet in diameter, with a proportionate stem of about five feet
from the earth. The hum of insects, and sudden disturbance of
rich-coloured parrots, screaming and fluttering through the branches, and
the strong, short, rapid flight of the dove, with its melancholy cooing,
transported us in imagination a long way inland, whereas we were not
three hundred yards from the beach. We now wended our way towards a small
eminence, through long grass, in most places interwoven with creepers,
compelling us to tear our way through them in the ascent.

ASTONISH A NATIVE.

In doing so Mr. Bynoe flushed a native; but before the rest of the party
could come up, he had taken to flight. The simultaneous cries of "here's
a native!" "where!" "here!" "there he goes stark naked," rose; and before
ALL EYES could catch a glimpse, his dark figure insensibly blended with
the waving branches of his wild solitude, and without a cry of fear or
joy, he was lost to us, perhaps for ever! We burst through the same
brushwood he had recently thrown aside, and entered a labyrinth of forest
trees, without finding a clue to the direction he had taken.

The whole of the country appeared to be granitic; the eminence on which
we stood bore that character, and some parts, near the beach, were thrown
into massive blocks, at high-water, completely surrounded by the flux of
tide. The view inland was intercepted by hills and trees, the former
assuming the same appearance as the one we were on, but higher. Our
game-bag was thinly lined with small curlews, oyster-catchers, and
sanderlings.

A sandy spit connects Magnetical Island on the south side with the main,