334 Mr. Boyd Alexander on the 



distant sea. About midday, after a tiring trek, we reached 

 Basupu, a small Boobie-village, where we pitched our camp. 

 While on the road we had collected a dozen specimens, the 

 skinning and making up of which kept us busy for the rest 

 of the afternoon. Our camp was prettily situated just above 

 a stream, the noise of which we constantly heard. There is 

 no lack of water on the island. We continually had to cross 

 deep ravines, down which water, sparkling and clear, flowed 

 from the hills. 



At Bibola^ our next camp, we met with some difficulty at 

 the hands of the natives. After a tiring march through 

 thick bush, we arrived towards sundown at this Boobie-village, 

 which consisted of small oblong huts scattered among plan- 

 tations of yam. These dwellings are made of wooden slabs 

 driven upright into the ground and roofed with palm-leaves. 

 The low doorways, through which the natives crawl, are closed 

 by slabs in the same way as our pig-pounds. Our advent 

 became the signal for a general helter-skelter of the owners 

 into the long grass and bush. Mothers caught up their 

 children as they ran, while the men stared at us and then 

 tailed off to neighbouring huts, jabbering the whole way like 

 a, string of geese. The night was perfect. Palm-trees, 

 with their tops silvered by the moon, reared their trunks 

 from masses of tall fish-cane growing round our camp. Small 

 mice crossed and recrossed the narrow paths without dis- 

 turbing the silence, which now and again was broken by 

 the rustling of grass-cane being pushed aside, and black 

 faces would peer out the next moment to catch a glimpse of 

 me as I sat enjoying my last pipe before bedtime. Not 

 long afterwards an uproar of fowls being caught in neigh- 

 bouring bushes made it clear to me that we were not going 

 to be trusted. Early next morning (Nov. 1) we struck our 

 camp, and were glad to get away from this dirty village. 

 The natives followed us for some distance, and, thinking they 

 had seen the last of us, gradually melted away into the bush. 

 I then doubled back and took a native track going almost 

 due south into the wooded hills, where we stayed collecting 

 for a couple of days ; but the natives, gathering together under 



