426 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION E. 



children. A most painful ease of this kind v.-as investigated 

 by the Administrator shortly after his assumption of office. 

 It was on the peacefal hank of a mountain stream that a 

 native woman, accompanied by two little girls and a bo^^ 

 were innocently wandering in search of food when they were 

 brutally slaughtei-ed, and their ghastly corses left on the 

 gravelly edge of the stream to the ravages of the birds and 

 beasts of prey. The forms of disposing of the dead are 

 loathsome and repugnant to the civilised mind. In some 

 places the remains are laid out on an unprotected platform 

 where the elements are free to act on them. Sometimes the 

 corses are suspended in the branches of trees in a jiosition to 

 allow the decomposed liquid to fall into a vessel, and others 

 are laid out on ])latforms inside "dead-houses" witliin the 

 villages. Upon the individual merits of these systems it is 

 not intended to dwell; let us hope that as civilisation advances, 

 these outrages upon the feelings of the living maybe recorded 

 as a thing of tlie past. The process of transition will no 

 doubt be slow and tedious, but if the foundation we have 

 already laid is steadily Iniilt upon the issues will be 

 felicitous. 



One of the earliest Government stations is situated at the 

 village of Rigo, where the interests of the Crown are pro- 

 tected by a resident agent. This is not far distant from the 

 seat of Government, but the site was an eligible one, and 

 easily accessible either by land or by sea. One of the native 

 teachers of the London Missionary Society also labours in 

 this district, his head-quarters being also at Rigo. 



Concerning the geological character of this region we 

 know but little. Several specimens of rocks have been sub- 

 mitted to the examination of experts, but the results are 

 incomplete, through inadequate representation. The speci- 

 mens were chiefly pebbles and small pieces of quartz, jasper, 

 lydianised quartz, limestone and oxide of manganese in a 

 hard silicious matrix. In the district of Rigo indications of 

 iron were met with, and specimens of plumbago of good 

 quality were obtained. From his hurried observations Sir 

 AVilliam MacGregor is of opinion that these plumbago 

 deposits, which are scattered over wide areas within the 

 district, may very probably be of considerable commercial 

 value. 



The Kemp- Welch busin is walled in on its northern 

 aspect by the Obree Mount, the highest peak of an extensive 

 and rugged range, the slopes of which are clothed by dense 



