A DANGEROUS FLOOD 179 



quite a dangerous place, and I had a very unpleasant 

 experience the first time I camped there. I was on my 

 way out to the Wataikwa river with a Gurkha, four 

 coolies and about twenty natives of Parimau laden with 

 tins of rice. The river was comparatively low when we 

 pitched our camp, but it began to rain in the afternoon, 

 and the almost continuous thunder and the black clouds 

 in that direction showed us that it was raining heavily 

 in the mountains. By nightfall the rising flood had com- 

 pletely covered the sandbank in front of the camp, and 

 before midnight the river was flowing right through the 

 camp. The coolies were taking refuge like birds in the 

 trees, and the water had just covered my piece of ground, 

 which was an inch or two higher than any other spot. 

 The Gurkha came and helped me to secure the stores 

 from the water, which was still rising fast. We arranged 

 all the rice tins upright, and on them we placed my bed ; 

 on the bed we placed all the other stores and baggage, and 

 finally I took refuge there myself. The water rose above 

 the top of the rice tins and about half way up the frame- 

 work of my bed and then happily it began to fall rapidly, 

 and in an hour or two the camp was land again. Shoes 

 of mine and odd garments of the coolies were washed 

 away, but we had been in no danger of being swept 

 away, for the current was not rapid enough over the 

 comparatively shallow water of the island ; the only risk 

 was from the large logs and trees which came sweeping 

 down on the flood. The Papuans, who were encamped 

 on another island a short distance below ours, had kept 

 up all night a constant and most melancholy wailing, 

 which did not at all add to the humour of the situation. 



