460 Mr. W, R. Ogilvie Grant on the 



the river coming down in a tremendous flood with very little 

 warning. The camp had been pitched about 20 feet above 

 the river, which at this part was about 200 yards wide, but 

 in less than twelve hours, fortunately in daylight, the water 

 was running from two to three feet deep like a mill-race 

 through Mr, Whitehead's tent, while his men had to escape 

 in canoes from another house lower down the river, where 

 most of the less portable boxes had been left. 



By great exertions all the baggage was saved. '' I have," 

 writes Mr. Whitehead, " seen a good deal of the tropics, but 

 I never encountered such deluges, such incessant rain, or 

 such thousands of leeches. The leeches quite crippled two of 

 my men, and one of the two caught ' birri-birri,' so I sent him 

 back to Manila. All the others had fever, but I got off with 

 two mild attacks of dysentery. I was so reduced, from having 

 nothing to eat but tinned foods and rice, that I became quite 

 weak, losing most of my energy at times. In four months 

 I had eaten only five pigeons, two parrots, and some few 

 thrushes, and, with the exception of eggs, there was no other 

 fresh food to be had.'' Such is life in the highlands of the 

 Philippines. 



By making friends with a chief of the true aborigines of 

 Mindoro, the twenty-five porters required to carry the 

 baggage to the mountains were at last obtained, and, after 

 two days' march under continuous heavy rain, Mr. Whitehead 

 and his men camped at an altitude of 4500 feet on Mount 

 Dulangan, in the main range of Mindoro. This range of 

 mountains is somewhat horseshoe-shaped. Mr. Whitehead 

 continues : — " To cut a long story short, it rained all Novem- 

 ber, all December, and all January : one deluge began on the 

 1 1th of December, and was perhaps second only to that which 

 floated Noah and his great zoological collection, for it con- 

 tinued until the 6th of January, 1896 ! But for all this I was 

 in good health, the climate being cool, seldom over 60° F., and 

 some nights only 52° F. In such weather it was hardly to 

 be expected that we should do very much ; in my opinion 

 birds migrate to other and drier situations during such 

 seasons. Pittas certainly do, and perhaps most other species. 



