"Why?" Said I. "Perhaps The
Pirates May Really Come," Said He Very Seriously, Which Made Me
Laugh And Assure Him I Should Sleep As Hard As I Could.
Two days were spent here, but the place was unproductive of
insects or birds of interest, so we made another attempt to get
on.
As soon as we got a little away from the land we had a fair
wind, and in six hours' sailing reached the entrance of the
Watelai channel, which divides the most northerly from the middle
portion of Aru. At its mouth this was about half a mile wide, but
soon narrowed, and a mile or two on it assumed entirely the
aspect of a river about the width of the Thames at London,
winding among low but undulating and often hilly country. The
scene was exactly such as might be expected in the interior of a
continent. The channel continued of a uniform average width, with
reaches and sinuous bends, one bank being often precipitous, or
even forming vertical cliffs, while the other was flat and
apparently alluvial; and it was only the pure salt-water, and the
absence of any stream but the slight flux and reflux of the tide,
that would enable a person to tell that he was navigating a
strait and not a river. The wind was fair, and carried us along,
with occasional assistance from our oars, till about three in the
afternoon, when we landed where a little brook formed two or
three basins in the coral rock, and then fell in a miniature
cascade into the salt water river.
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