182 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



New Georgia which has a pillar on it, and is used as 

 a bearing on the charts.) 



" Re Rennell Island. As I wrote you before, this 

 will rest with yourselves. If I thought there was much 

 to be got there, I should want no guarantee, but I 

 am quite certain it would pay no man to go there 

 and be paid by results." 



Now there had come reports of a new butterfly 

 having been discovered at Bougainville, and the 

 Tring Museum was keen to get some specimens. 

 The discovery had been made by one of the Roman 

 Catholic Fathers of the Sacred Heart Mission, who 

 was collecting for a friend in Luxembourg. The 

 butterfly in question was a close relative of the 

 Papilio laglaizei, only much darker. The quest of 

 this particular butterfly was the chief object of this 

 collecting trip to Bougainville, though not, of course, 

 the only object. 



I left Samarai on September 30, 1907, and reached 

 Ronongo a week later, staying there three days whilst 

 making some alterations to my ship's gear, and fitting 

 to her another topmast. I reached Gizo on October 

 10. I had a fairly good trip across, with no very 

 heavy weather, but big seas and constant heavy rain- 

 squalls, accompanied by thunder and lightning. I 

 was pleased when we got into sheltered waters and 

 anchored, as I was rather anxious on account of the 

 barometer falling very low lower than it had done 

 in the hurricane a month previously in New Guinea. 



