That evening they landed within a cove, both vessels being brought as near the shore as possible.
"We can safely go in close this evening, because the tide is now out," said John.
Sutoto, while he had navigated the vessel, and had shown remarkable skill, was, nevertheless, not well versed in tides and the action of the moon.
Quick to learn, he asked John why the tides thus changed. John explained the reason that the tides flowed in and out twice during each twenty-four hours, or a little less than that time, so that high water, or low water would always be at a time a little later each day, and then stated that it would be an easy matter to so make the calculations that they would be able to tell ahead for a whole year just when during each day the highest or lowest water would be.
While waiting on the ship during the hours of the evening they were interested in the magnificent fire flies which they saw on the shore and along the mountain side. This was not an unfamiliar sight to them as they had witnessed such scenes many times before.
But now they saw such sights as they had never before observed. They must have been giant glow birds, because some of the lights flew at least hundreds of feet emitting continuous streams of light, and this was not all, many of the lights were colored, particularly red and blue or simply faint tinges of those tints.
"I have often thought that there is nothing more wonderful than the fire fly," said George.
"But what do you think makes it so wonderful?" asked John.