43 



shaddock, lemon, and lime trees were selected for this 

 purpose, and presume it was simply because these 

 kinds abounded in the vicinity of villages to a much 

 greater extent than others. 



In the dry season the Siga Toka river, at Port 

 Carnarvon, is about 30 yards wide, and from 1^ feet 

 to 2 feet deep. As far into the mountains as na 

 Tua-tua-coka there is a large area of excellent flat land 

 which is suitable for growing sugar cane. Near the 

 coast also the area of such land is said to be extensive, 

 and I believe that, with the low hills and the alluvial 

 flats, there are from 20 to 25 square miles of good cane 

 land on the borders of this river. The locality is dry, but 

 land which has such a quantity of fresh water running 

 through it to the sea, should not be much affected by 

 drought. Coral limestone and a rough calcareous look- 

 ing sandstone abound in this neighbourhood, but 

 volcanic breccia and basaltic rocks are not uncommon. 



We left Fort Carnarvon for Nadrau, stopping the 

 first day on account of a violent thunderstorm at a 

 village called Mata-wala, the next at another called 

 Bilo, and arriving at Nadrau on the 5 ; third day. 

 The path was in some places along the beds of streams, 

 then it ran along the tops of the hills, occasionally 

 crossing inverted V shaped ridges at right angles ; 

 over rocks and down precipices at angles varying 

 from 80° to 90.° It was annoying, after a long 

 climb up one side of a steep hill, to see the path 

 winding among the long grass, up and over a similar 

 hill just before us, and also to know that we had to 

 go down an almost perpendicular descent of nearly a 

 1,000 feet, to leap from one slippery stone to another 

 along the rocky bed of a stream in the bottom of the 



