Ready, pointing to them with his finger, "where the water has run down
in the rainy season: we must examine them carefully, but not now. I
want to find out whether there is any means of getting our little boat
through this reef of rocks, or otherwise we shall have very hard work
(if we change our abode to this spot) to bring all our stores through
that wood; so we will pass the rest of this day in examining the coast,
and to-morrow we will try for fresh water."

"Look at the dogs, Ready, they are drinking the sea-water, poor
things!"

"They won't drink much of that, I expect; you see they don't like it
already."

"How beautiful the corals are - look here, they grow like little trees
under the water, - and look here, here is really a flower in bloom
growing on that rock just below the water."

"Put your finger to it, Master William," said Ready.

William did so, and the flower, as he called it, immediately shut up.

"Why, it's flesh, and alive!"

"Yes, it is; I have often seen them before: they call them sea-anemones
- they are animals; but I don't know whether they are shell-fish or
not. Now, let us walk out to the end of this point of land, and see if
we can discover any opening in the reef. The sun is going down, and we
shall not have more than an hour's daylight, and then we must look out
for a place to sleep in."