The Confessions of a Beachcomber | Page 8

and cast
up the debris, with tinkling chips and fragments of shells, on the sand
for the sun and the tepid rains to bleach into dazzling whiteness. The
coral drift has swept up among the dull grey rocks and made a ridge
beneath the pendant branches of the trees, as if to establish a contrast
between the sombre tints of the jungle and the blueness of the sea.
Midway along the curve of vegetation a bingum flaunts its mantle--a
single daub of demonstrative colouring. Away to the north stand out the
Barnard Islands, and the island-like headland of Double-Point.
Rocky walls and ledges intersected by narrow clefts in which the sea
boils, gigantic masses of detached granite split and weathered into
strange shapes and corniced and bridged at high water-mark by oysters,
bold escarpments and medleys of huge boulders, extend along the
weather side. No landing, except in the calmest weather, is possible. To
gain a sandy beach, the south-east end of the island, passing through a
deep channel separating the rocky islet of Wooln-garin, must be turned.
Although there are no great cliffs, no awesome precipices on the
weather side, the bluff rocks present many grotesque features, and the
foliage is for the most part wildly luxuriant.
From what has been already said, it may be gleaned that in the opinion
of the most interested person the island is gilt-edged. So indeed it is, in
fact, when certain natural conditions consequent on the presence of
coral are fulfilled. A phenomenally high tide deposited upon the rocks a
slimy, fragile organism of the sea, in incomprehensible myriads which,
drying, adhered smoothly in true alignment. With the sun at the proper
angle there appeared, as far as the irregularity of the coast line
permitted, a shining band, broken only where the face of the rock was
uneven and detached--a zone of gold bestowed upon the island by the
amorous sea. But on the beach the slime which transformed the grey

and brown rocks was nothing but an inconsistent, dirty, grey-green,
crisp, ill-smelling streak, that haply vanished in a couple of days. As I
see less of the weather side than I do of the beach, I argue to myself
that it is nearer perfection to be minus a streak of dirt than plus a
golden edge.
At no season of the year is the island fragrantless. The prevailing
perception may be of lush grasses mingled with the soft odour of their
frail flowers; or the resin and honey of blossoming bloodwoods; or the
essence from myriads of other eucalyptus leaves massaged by the
winds. The incomparable beach-loving calophyllums yield a profuse
but tender fragrance reminiscent of English meadow-sweet, and the
flowers of a vigorous trailer (CANAVILA OBTUSIFOLIA), for ever
exploring the bare sand at high-water mark, resembles the sweet-pea in
form and perfume. The white cedar (MELIA COMPOSITA) is a
welcome and not unworthy substitute in appearance and perfume for
English lilac. The aromatic pandanus and many varieties of acacia,
each has its appointed time and season; while at odd intervals the air is
saturated with the rich and far-spreading incense of the melaleuca, and
for many weeks together with the honeyed excellence of the swamp
mahogany (TRISTANIA SUAVOSLENS) and the over-rich cloyness
of the cockatoo apple (CAREYA AUSTRALIS). Strong and spicy are
the odours of the plants and trees that gather on the edge of and crowd
in the jungle, the so-called native ginger, nutmeg, quandong, milkwood,
bean-tree, the kirri-cue of the blacks (EUPOMATIA LAURINA),
koie-yan (FARADAYA SPLENDIDA), with its great white flowers
and snowy fruit, and many others. Hoya, heavy and indolent, trails
across and dangles from the rocks; the river mangrove dispenses its
sweetness in an unexpected locality; and from the heart of the jungle
come wafts of warm breath, which, mingling with exhalation from
foliage and flower, is diffused broadcast. The odour of the jungle is
definite--earthy somewhat, but of earth clean, wholesome and
moist--the smell of moss, fern and fungus blended with balsam, spice
and sweetness.
Many a time, home-returning at night--when the black contours of the
island loomed up in the distance against the pure tropic sky tremulous

with myriads of unsullied stars--has its tepid fragrance drifted across
the water as a salutation and a greeting. It has long been a fancy of
mine that the island has a distinctive odour, soft and pliant, rich and
vigorous. Other mixtures of forest and jungle may smell as strong, but
none has the rare blend which I recognise and gloat over whensoever,
after infrequent absences for a day or two, I return to accept of it in
grateful sniffs. In such a fervid and encouraging clime distillation is
continuous and prodigious. Heat and moisture and a plethora of raw
material, leaves, flowers, soft, sappy and fragrant woods, growing grass