only six or seven fathoms deep; but that on a clear night, even when there was no moon, the officer on the watch could still "pick up the islands with glasses." The small coral islands are innumerable, and often quite flat, so that only a practised eye could discern their neighbourhood at night, even with glasses.
A great charm of travelling by sea is that it brings one into intimate relationship with all sorts and conditions of men. People who stay at home have a tendency to get into sets, to associate too exclusively with people of their own kind, whose points of view, standards of life and habits are all more or less the same as their own, and so they settle into grooves and get dull, and their minds become inelastic. On a ship, at sea, especially a small ship, the society may be as varied as the world. One of the most interesting people we met on our travels was a passenger on the "Montoro." His business was shipping. He knew all the islands that are scattered in enticing little groups from the Torres Straits to beyond New Guinea. He could distinguish at a glance the different types of natives—Kanaka boys from the Torres Straits islands, pale-skinned, shock-headed Papuans, yellow Melanesians, or sooty Cingalese. He knew every inch of the route we were travelling, having often made the journey. Formerly boats of this
