He had heard of this open water, and it was his intention to sail out into and explore it, but as the sun now began to decline towards the west, he considered that he had better wait till morning, and so have a whole day before him.

Meantime, he would paddle through the channel, beach the canoe on the islet that stood farthest out, and so start clear on the morrow.
Turning now to look back the other way, westward, he was surprised to see a second channel, which came almost to the foot of the hill on which he stood, but there ended and did not connect with the first.

The entrance to it was concealed, as he now saw, by an island, past which he must have sailed that afternoon.

This second or blind channel seemed more familiar to him than the flat and reedy shore at the mouth of the true strait, and he now recognised it as the one to which he had journeyed on foot through the forest.

He had not then struck the true strait at all; he had sat down and pondered beside this deceptive inlet thinking that it divided the mainlands.