The farther he penetrated the more numerous became the waterfowl.  Ducks swam among the flags, or rose with a rush and splashing.  Coots and moorhens dived and hid in the reeds.  The lesser grebe sank at the sound of the paddle like a stone.  A strong northern diver raised a wave as he hurried away under the water, his course marked by the undulation above him.  Sedge-birds chirped in the willows; black-headed buntings sat on the trees, and watched him without fear.  Bearded titmice were there, clinging to the stalks of the sedges, and long-necked herons rose from the reedy places where they love to wade.  Blue dragon-flies darted to and fro, or sat on water-plants as if they were flowers.  Snakes swam across the channels, vibrating their heads from side to side.  Swallows swept over his head.  Pike “struck” from the verge of the thick weeds as he came near.  Perch rose for insects as they fell helpless into the water.

He noticed that the water, though so thick with reeds, was as clear as that in the open Lake; there was no scum such as accumulates in stagnant places.  From this he concluded that there must be a current, however slight, perhaps from rivers flowing into this part of the Lake.  He felt the strongest desire to explore farther till he reached the mainland, but he reflected that mere exploration was not his object; it would never obtain Aurora for him.  There were no signs whatever of human habitation, and from reeds and bulrushes, however interesting, nothing could be gained.  Reluctantly, therefore, on the third morning, having passed the night on one of the islets, he turned his canoe, and paddled southwards towards the Lake.

He did not for a moment attempt to retrace the channel by which he had entered; it would have been an impossibility; he took advantage of any clear space to push through.  It took him as long to get out as it had to get in; it was the afternoon of the fourth day when he at last regained the coast.  He rested the remainder of the afternoon, wishing to start fresh in the morning, having determined to follow the line of the shore eastwards, and so gradually to circumnavigate the Lake.  If he succeeded in nothing else, that at least would be something to relate to Aurora.

The morning rose fair and bright, with a south-westerly air rather than a breeze.  He sailed before it; it was so light that his progress could not have exceeded more than three miles an hour.  Hour after hour passed away, and still he followed the line of the shore, now going a short way out to skirt an island, and now nearer it to pass between sandbanks.  By noon he was so weary of sitting in the canoe that he ran her ashore, and rested awhile.

It was the very height of the heat of the day when he set forth again, and the wind lighter than in the morning.  It had, however, changed a little, and blew now from the west, almost too exactly abaft to suit his craft.  He could not make a map while sailing, or observe his position accurately, but it appeared to him that the shore trended towards the south-east, so that he was gradually turning an arc.  He supposed from this that he must be approaching the eastern end of the Lake.  The water seemed shallower, to judge from the quantity of weeds.  Now and then he caught glimpses between the numerous islands of the open Lake, and there, too, the weeds covered the surface in many places.