broken up into a multitude of very small vales, or rather dells and
glens, intermingled with little rugged spots and small but abrupt
precipices here and there, with rivulets tumbling over their edges
and wandering down the slopes in little white streams, sometimes
glistening among the broad leaves of the bread-fruit and cocoa-nut
trees, or hid altogether beneath the rich underwood. At the base
of this mountain lay a narrow bright green plain or meadow, which
terminated abruptly at the shore. On the other side of the island,
whence we had come, stood the smaller hill, at the foot of which
diverged three valleys; one being that which we had ascended, with
a smaller vale on each side of it, and separated from it by the two
ridges before mentioned. In these smaller valleys there were no
streams, but they were clothed with the same luxuriant vegetation.

The diameter of the island seemed to be about ten miles, and, as it
was almost circular in form, its circumference must have been
thirty miles; - perhaps a little more, if allowance be made for the
numerous bays and indentations of the shore. The entire island was
belted by a beach of pure white sand, on which laved the gentle
ripples of the lagoon. We now also observed that the coral reef
completely encircled the island; but it varied its distance from it
here and there, in some places being a mile from the beach, in
others, a few hundred yards, but the average distance was half a
mile. The reef lay very low, and the spray of the surf broke quite
over it in many places. This surf never ceased its roar, for,
however calm the weather might be, there is always a gentle swaying
motion in the great Pacific, which, although scarce noticeable out
at sea, reaches the shore at last in a huge billow. The water
within the lagoon, as before said, was perfectly still. There were
three narrow openings in the reef; one opposite each end of the