FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 105 
morning of the third of July, but we did not go aboard until about 
the middle of the afternoon. As noted before, Wylie was to re- 
main in Fiji until the next steamer called on its way to New 
_ Zealand; he felt that much remained for him to do and, moreover, 
had arranged for another trip into the interior with Mr. Wright. 
I certainly disliked leaving him there as he had worked too con- 
tinuously and I was afraid of a breakdown. Besides, he was my 
*‘bunkie,’’ a close associate during our outward voyage to Fiji, 
and later on Makuluva, and had shown me what a royal good fel- 
low he was. 
We found mail from home awaiting us on the ship and, although 
the news was about a month old, it was the latest we had and 
most welcome. It was necessary to see that all of the equipment 
and baggage was transferred from the dock to the ship, each par- 
cel carefully checked off until the list was complete. Dr. Stoner 
could be depended upon to attend to that and to keep track of our 
goods and chattels at all times. 
Mr. Fell came aboard to see us off, accompanied by Mr. Pilling 
who had so efficiently attended to us on our arrival. Their pri- 
mary object, however, was to bid good-bye to Sir Charles Davison, 
Chief Justice of Fiji, who was leaving for Australia. Many people 
were on the dock to see the Makura off, most of them to bid fare- 
well to the Chief Justice who seemed a very popular official. Our 
two Fijians were on hand and Alfred’s honest face loomed up 
amid the crowd. Esile was there, too. Both had served us faith- 
fully and had taken an extraordinary interest in collecting on the 
reefs and flats of Makuluva. Their keen eyes had seen many rare 
specimens that would otherwise have escaped us, and we think 
of them often when studying our collections in the laboratories at 
home. 
Here we saw for the first time a leave-taking custom that was 
extremely attractive and characteristic, we believe, of the South 
Seas. One end of a long roll of brightly colored paper tape or 
ribbon is held by the departing friend on the steamer and the 
other end by a friend on the wharf. As the ship slowly leaves 
the dock scores of these ribbons stream from her decks and are 
unrolled slowly by those ashore, who sometimes fasten several to- 
gether so as to prolong the ‘‘tie that binds.’’ One by one the 
ribbons are broken or the ends are reached until only a few at 
the stern are intact and they soon follow suit. Finally the last 
one is broken and the connection between the friends on deck and 
