516 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



butter. A Chinaman keeps a restaurant to which Tahitian girls 

 are taken by their lovers in order to consume these luxuries. 

 Wheaten bread is greatly appreciated by Polynesians, and a 

 baker is one of the first tradesmen who finds a profitable busi- 

 ness amongst the natives on any of the islands when in process 

 of civilization. There was an English baker on Tongatabu, he 

 being almost the only White retail dealer established there. 

 He told me he sold a great quantity of bread to the natives. 



I made an excursion up into the mountains in search of 

 plants. Some of the mountains rise to a height of over 7,000 

 feet, and I hoped to be able to reach a considerable altitude in 

 the search of mountain forms. It was settled that at all events 

 I was to reach the head of a valley called Papeno in the 

 interior. I was provided with native guides ; one, an old man, 

 supposed to be thoroughly acquainted with the mountains. 



I started with Lieut. Channer and F. Pearcey, our excellent 

 bird skinner and factotum. The men carried our little baggage 

 on the ends of poles, resting on their shoulders, like Chinese 

 coolies. The practice of this method of carrying has been 

 remarked upon as one of the many evidences of the Polynesian 

 affinity of the New Zealanders. We traversed the beautiful 

 valley of Fataua, closed at its head to the view by the irregu- 

 larly peaked outline of the mountain, termed by the French, 

 from its form, the " Diadem." 



The stream of the valley pours over a high cliff, which bars 

 the valley across in a very beautiful waterfall. In the cliff 

 beneath the falling water is a wide hollow, overhung by the 

 rock above, and in this Tropic Birds nest, and two or three were 

 constantly to be seen, flying about the cliff and across the 

 deep chasm of the valley, conspicuous against the dense green 

 foliage and dark rocks. Very good strawberries were growing 

 in a garden just above the fall. The plants were mostly in 

 blossom, only a few fruits were ripe. The Mango trees in the 

 island in the same way were mostly now in blossom, or with 

 young green fruit. The orange season was just at its end. 



The stream is full of small fish {DaUs Mcdo) one of the 

 Perch family. The fish have adapted themselves entirely to 

 a fresh-water life, and rise to a fly like trout. Captain Thomson 





