OUR FIRST LOSS 47 



the laden boats arrived at the camp they fell upon 

 the boats in hordes and quickly carried everything 

 up the steep mud bank, but this amusement palled 

 upon them very soon, and they stood about doing nothing 

 and hampered the men at their work of unpacking. 

 Accordingly a stout wooden fence was built about the 

 landward side of the camp and over this they w^re 

 content to gaze from morning till night. They stood 

 packed together five or six deep, and the press of those 

 at the back trying to catch a glimpse of what was 

 going on was so great that two or three times the 

 fence fell bodily inwards, and with it a struggling mass 

 of black humanity ; but it was not many days before 

 their curiosity was satisfied, and though they did not 

 afford us very much assistance it was fortunate that 

 they were not inclined to molest or interfere with us 

 in any way. 



We had only been in our camp at Wakatimi for 

 one day and it already seemed as if the place was 

 beginning to show some sign of order, when a melan- 

 choly tragedy threw a gloom over the spirits of the 

 whole expedition. On the afternoon of January 9th 

 Mr. Wilfred Stalker, who had had plenty of experience 

 of tropical and Australian jungles, went out from the 

 camp taking his collecting gun to shoot some birds. 

 The usual daily rain began at about four o'clock, but 

 as we were all busy with various occupations in our 

 tents his absence was not noticed until after six o'clock, 

 when it was already pitch dark and the rain was falling 

 in torrents. Beyond the camp was dense jungle inter- 

 sected by creeks and pools of water, difficult enough 



