202 CELEBES. [chap. 



Fortunately the water-tight compartments with which the boat was 

 fitted sufficed to keep her afloat, and getting her head to wind and 

 throwing overboard our ballast, we managed at length to reduce 

 the water by baling hard with our helmets, and eventually got 

 ashore without further misadventure. Occurrences such as these 

 are apt to interfere with accuracy in shooting, and we were not 

 sorry to learn that we should in all probability have few oppor- 

 tunities of using a rifle. Two of us, from exposure to the wmd in 

 wet clothes, were afterwards attacked by malarial fever, which in 

 one instance was of an unusually severe type. 



Landing on a rocky beach we scrambled up a steep cliff about 

 eighty feet high, and a few yards inland found oiirselves on a small 

 ridoe which formed the backbone of the isthmus. From here the 

 ground fell away in a gradual slope to the eastern shore of the 

 island, which w^as not much more than a hundred yards away, and 

 the open character of the forest allowed of any passing game being 

 seen almost at that distance. The natives told us, however, and, as 

 it proved, quite correctly, that almost all the Babirusa would come 

 along the ridge, and acting on this knowledge, the " curral " had 

 been constructed on its flat summit, its V-shaped mouth embracing 

 the ground from the steep cliff to the commencement of the slope 

 on the eastern side. Just at this point a gigantic mahogany-tree 

 had been felled, and on its prostrate trunk a sort of grand stand, 

 built of rough logs and elevated six or eight feet from the ground, 

 had been erected for our benefit. A stout, large -meshed net 

 blocked the small gap intervening between the foot of our tree and 

 the " curral," and adown the slope a line of netting of a somewhat 

 finer kind stretched to within thirty yards of the eastern shore. 

 This part was left entirely unguarded. 



We had plenty of time to wait before the sport began, and 

 meanwhile the natives arranged themselves at their posts. One 

 stood at the door of the " curral " ready to close it directly any 

 animal rushed in, others took up their places on either side of the 

 wide entrance, wdiile the remainder crouched in front of the long 



