A VISIT TO THE SOLOMON ISLANDS 97 



interesting discovery here was a rare Papilio, called 

 the Papilio laglaizei. This was not new, but had 

 not been encountered before in that district. It is 

 a butterfly that mimics the moth in some respects, 

 and is black and bronze in colour. A discovery that 

 was named after me was the Qrgyris meeki. I got a 

 male specimen of this large blue insect at Milne Bay 

 on this occasion (1898). I did not get a female 

 specimen until the year 1910. 



The natives were very friendly at Milne Bay, and 

 I stayed there some five months. I had some 

 advantage of my garden, which yielded fine crops of 

 melons, which I used to bring to Samarai for my 

 friends. I recall here encountering the tail-end of 

 the famous hurricane of 1898. Hurricanes, however, 

 are not particularly common in the South Seas. 

 Usually there we have the benefit of fairly regular 

 trade winds. There are two different seasons, that 

 of the South-East monsoon, usually accompanied 

 by fine weather, and lasting from April to December, 

 and that of the North- West monsoon, during which 

 storms may be expected. The North- West monsoon 

 season continues during January, February, and 

 March. 



This hurricane of 1898 was so severe that sea-birds 

 were cast up dead on the beach, and trees uprooted 

 in all directions. I had good reason to remember it, 

 for after two days of raging wind which appeared to 

 come from all points of the compass, there was a 



