From the village to the reef was a distance of two miles, which we soon covered by smart paddling in a dozen or more canoes; for had we delayed we should, through the falling tide, have been obliged to leave our stranded crafts on the sand, half-way, and walk the remainder.
I need not here attempt to describe the wondrous beauties of a South Sea coral reef at low tide--they have been fully and ably written about by many distinguished travellers--but the barrier reef of Strong's Island is so different in its formation from those of most other islands in the Pacific, that I must, as relative illustration to this account of the fishing by oap mention its peculiarity.
Instead of the small clefts, chasms, and pools which so frequently occur on the barrier reefs of the mountainous islands of P
