He Said The Strait Was Often Very Narrow, And Wound
Among Lakes And Rocks And Islands, And That It Would Take Two
Days To Reach The Large Village Of Muka, And Three More To Get To
Waigiou.
I succeeded in hiring two men to go with us to Muka,
bringing a small boat in which to return; but we had to wait a
day for our guides, so I took my gun and made a little excursion
info the forest.
The day was wet and drizzly, and I only
succeeded in shooting two small birds, but I saw the great black
cockatoo, and had a glimpse of one or two Birds of Paradise,
whose loud screams we had heard on first approaching the coast.
Leaving the village the next morning (July 1st) with a light
wind, it took us all day to reach the entrance to the channel,
which resembled a small river, and was concealed by a projecting
point, so that it was no wonder we did not discover it amid the
dense forest vegetation which everywhere covers these islands to
the water's edge. A little way inside it becomes bounded by
precipitous rocks, after winding among which for about two miles,
we emerged into what seemed a lake, but which was in fact a deep
gulf having a narrow entrance on the south coast. This gulf was
studded along its shores with numbers of rocky islets, mostly
mushroom shaped, from the `eater having worn away the lower part
of the soluble coralline limestone, leaving them overhanging from
ten to twenty feet.
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