and power of motion, and who was very speedily a long way off engrossed with more profitable prey. I should tell you that this was one of the largest of the tribe of cuttle-fishes, or sepias, some of its family yielding the famous ink of commerce. Time would fail me were I to describe all I met on my way, but I must mention the real seasnakes which I beheld gliding about through the clear waves in calm weather. Beautifully striped, and of divers colours, and graceful as were their undulatory movements through the deep blue transparent waters, they are as dangerous and venomous as their brethren of the land, and equally shunned by seamen. Nor must I omit to mention the muræna, a species of eel which abounds in the waters of the Pacific, being quite as beautifully marked, but of less size, and of gentle and harmless character. Here I also met the white shark and its attendant, the "pilot" - a beautiful silvery fish, girdled with deep blue hands, which has gained its title by being always in advance of the shark. It is supposed to lead the latter to its meal, and also to warn it when any dangers arise, and to be its faithful companion and guide. The pretty flyingfish occasionally passed overhead, their azure bodies and silver-filmed fins glittering in the sun in the most charming manner possible. Thus many were

the new acquaintances I made, and the new faces I saw, while on my wandering way.

'At one time I was entangled in a huge floating mass of sea-weed which had drifted on these ocean currents from some distant latitude, and now lay like a small, floating, half submerged island on the surface of the sea. Although it was so different in structure, it reminded me in particular of my beloved coral reef, for it was equally the home and pasture-ground of innumerable hosts of living creatures; and I was therefore very glad when I was washed upon it by a large wave. Here I found many of my old neighbours, in the way of crabs, fish, and corallines. It was, in fact, a more peaceful and safe island of refuge, inasmuch as it was merely inhabited by the children of the sea, as I may term them, and was not easily accessible to the visits of our enemy, man.

'Here the plump holothuria might wave his plumy crown, and crawl about and feed in quiet, haunted by no fear of the terrible diver and his sharp knife. Here might the delicate star-fish spread his elegant rays undisturbed; here might the gorgeous actinia expand her feathery blossom unmolested, and the smaller creatures of their kind sport and feed in happy security. The birds of the air and the leviathans of the sea were the only molesters of these

peaceful retreats, and even from them there was less to be feared on this heaving and frequently submerged mass, than when on land.

'But my destiny, in early life at least, was to be a wandering one; and accordingly, when we had drifted on for some time in a profound calm, we were assailed by a violent tempest once more, and I was washed from my temporary refuge. It was now the change of the monsoon, as it is called, -the monsoons being winds which blow steadily from one point for a certain time; and at this period the elements are always violently disturbed, until the monsoon gains due strength, and subdues its former ally, now become its antagonist, the trade wind, which is doubtless very unwilling at first to make any change in its course. Washed off the sea-weed meadow, and separated once more from near neighbourhood with its peaceful inhabitants, I was now again at the mercy of the waves, which, during the prevalence of the terrible storm, played a sort of game of battledoor and shuttlecock with my light shell. When the violence of the strife between the wind and sea abated once more, I was borne swiftly along by a current-that of the Carolinian monsoon, which, after a while, cast me gently ashore once more on the sandy beach of an island.'

G

WAS now,' continued the shell, 'tossed on the shore of the island of Amboyna,

one of the Moluccas, under which name are now generally included all the group of Spice Islands. Amboyna, one of the most southerly of these islands, is very beautiful, being pleasantly diversified with hills and valleys. It was principally a Dutch settlement, and the industry of those thrifty people had cultivated its natural richness to every

possible extent. All this I learned, and more, from hearing the conversation of some of the inhabitants; for, soon after I was landed high and dry by a very rough tide on the beach of the large bay on the western side of the island, I was spied out by the sharp eyes of a fat, sturdy Dutch boy, Pieter Vandraart by name, who, in prowling along the sand, seeking what he might carry off, seized me with great glee, and bore me home.

'My first introduction to civilised society, accordingly, was in the quaint, Dutch-looking little house of Mynheer Vandraart, situated in the capital town of the isle, bearing the same name, and standing near the south-west extremity of the island, which naturally forms a sort of double peninsula. Mynheer Vandraart was a small merchant; and would have been a wealthy man (for he was even thriftier and shrewder than the rest of his countrymen), but that he possessed a very numerous flock of sons and daughters, numbering three of the former and seven of the latter, under his roof. But, even with the wants of this numerous tribe to provide for, he was very comfortably provided with a sufficient share of riches, not to make it a matter of great anxiety how to find food and clothing for them all, and lay by a little besides.

'He had, moreover, his little "Blumengarten," in