One of the tiny rivers ran down a precipitous gully in a series of fern-hung falls, to lose itself in the golden sands, and close at hand the sheltering trees were of the grandest in size and loveliness, overhung as they were with festoons of flowers, each tree affording ample study for Sir John and his friend; and the collecting went on apace from morn to eve, so that the boxes they had brought began to fill up and smell strongly of the aromatic gums and spices used to keep ants at a distance. The sailors took the keenest delight in the birds, and were eager to learn to skin, and carefully laid them in the hot sunshine till they dried. They gloried too in the pickle-tub, as they called the spirit-cask, to which the abundant snakes and lizards were consigned. Then of an evening they were always waiting for Jack to give the word for fishing, partly as an interesting sport, but after the first few times, for the sake of what Lenny called the pot, though in almost every case the capture was fried. It needed a good deal of care and discrimination though, and the doctor's natural history knowledge was often called upon to decide whether some gorgeously-armoured creature would be wholesome or no, some of the tropic fish being poisonous in the extreme. Then in addition there were the handsome birds which were collected; these, especially the fruit-pigeons, being very toothsome, though the larger parrots and cockatoos were, as Wrensler the cook said, not to be sneezed at, though he declared that they would have been far better if plucked instead of skinned. So beautiful was the shore by the stream that the temptation was very great to erect a tent and live on the land, but it was considered too risky. "Only fancy, Jack," said the doctor with a queer look, "our meeting with the same trouble out in this solitary island as we should in London." "What trouble?" said Jack, laughing. "You don't mean the noise?" "No, but I mean the blacks," said the doctor. "Oh, I see," cried Jack; "but it does seem such a pity. I should like to have a tent ashore." "It would be delightful under one of those big trees, but canvas is a poor safeguard against the point of a spear. It wouldn't do." "No," said Jack with a sigh, "it would not do." Many excursions into the interior were made--the interior meaning a climb up the slope of the great mountain--and in all cases a grand selection of beautifully-plumaged birds was secured. Many of these were the tiny sun-birds, glittering in scales of ruby, amethyst, sapphire, and topaz; then too at the sides of the streams vivid blue-and-white kingfishers with orange bills were shot, many of them with two of the tail-feathers produced in a long shaft ending in a racket-like flat, giving the birds a most graceful aspect.