I4 2 Dodd, A Naturalist in New Guinea. [voL 1Ct xxx 



XXXV. 



of these, with green pawpaw and some rice, with a pigeon or 

 several slices of bacon, made* a savoury meal. When we had 

 wallaby the camp oven was requisitioned, and we would feast 

 royally on a baked dinner. Fried bananas were a never-failing 

 source of satisfaction ; fine big ones often figured three times 

 a day on our menu. 



At Sogeri my companion contracted a sharp attack of 

 malaria, though I never saw an Anopheline mosquito there, 

 the only one I did see being at Sapphire Creek some weeks 

 later. It alarmed me to find that his temperature in a few 

 hours reached 105 , and I passed an anxious two nights sitting 

 up ; however, after reducing his fever by following Mr. and Mrs. 

 Jensen's advice, they kindly had him conveyed on his stretcher 

 by a party of natives to their house, where he made a good 

 recovery in eight or nine days. The whites think little of fever, 

 many regarding it as a matter of course ; but I think quinine is 

 often taken unnecessarily. The treatment advocated by a 

 well-known doctor is 90 grs. a month, 15 grs. being taken every 

 ninth and tenth day. One evening the overseer, who lived 

 near us, came home complaining of fever ; at 7 o'clock we found 

 his temperature to be 105. 1 ; duly sweated him and changed his 

 saturated garments, leaving him at midnight. He was up 

 at the head station at 6.30 a.m. calling the roll and seeing the 

 natives off to work for the day, but was, of course, not right 

 for several days. I incline to the opinion that my son's fever 

 was a recurrence of the Queensland form, which he had con- 

 tracted at Johnston River some months before, and brought 

 on by a cold bath in the creek, which he had been cautioned 

 against, and over-exertion on the previous day, which was hot, 

 and being too long without a meal. I very rarely took quinine, 

 and then only in 5-gr. doses, though sitting up night after 

 night setting insects gave the mosquito every chance to attack. 

 However, I would exercise greater caution in a district known 

 to be infested with the mosquitoes. 



Upon our journey to Sogeri, when passing Kotaki plantation 

 (Mr. Sefton, manager), we saw in the distance the richly red 

 D'Albertis Pea dangling from some tall trees, but were too busy 

 to make a close inspection. 



On Sogeri plantation we came across the holes of a great 

 ground spider and dug some of these out, obtaining a dozen fine 

 specimens. The hole was vertical for nine or ten inches, then 

 turned horizontally for another ten inches, where we would 

 find the creature in a chamber containing beetle and other 

 fragments. It exhibited wild surprise when uncovered, and 

 was easily pushed into the lethal jar when frantically en- 

 deavouring to climb the sides of the excavation we had 

 made. 



