XII.] CLIMATIC DISAGREEABLES. 291 



D'All:)ertis had shot his Drepanornis, with its two fan-like tufts, 

 one flame -coloured, the other tipped with metallic violet, and 

 there Beccari braved the climate to form the splendid collections 

 in botany and zoology with which he returned to Europe. The 

 summits of the mountains were less than ten miles from where we 

 stood, yet although we might send our hunters on their slopes we 

 could not explore them ourselves, as we had settled to visit both 

 Jobi and the Aru Islands before leaving the Papuan region, and 

 the time allotted to the Marchesas cruise was fast approaching 

 completion. We now regretted that we had delayed so long in 

 Northern Borneo, but there was no help for it. The crew had 

 only signed articles for a specified time and were already grum- 

 bling at its being exceeded. It was hardly to be wondered at, for 

 the mangrove-swamps, incessant rain, and sweltering heat of Xew 

 Guinea offered them few attractions, and many of them were 

 suffering from the effects of the climate. In addition, their 

 provisions had run short, and they had no biscuit remaining. 

 We ourselves were much in the same condition, for our flour, 

 which was in tins, had all gone bad, and we were reduced to 

 rice and sago. 



Between us we had been in most of the torrid regions of the 

 earth's surface, but we agreed that, perhaps with the exception of 

 the Persian Gulf in summer, the climate of New Guinea was the most 

 trying of them all. Bathed in perspiration from morning till night 

 and from night till morning, we woke utterly unrefreshed by 

 sleep. The temperature, which in a dry climate would not have 

 been unpleasant — for it was rarely above 90° Pahr. — was in- 

 tolerable. Everything to which damp could cling became mouldy, 

 and our boots, if put on one side for a day or two, grew a crop of 

 mildew nearly half an inch in thickness. We were covered from 

 head to foot with prickly heat, and those who had been unfortunate 

 enoufTh to suffer from " liver " in other hot climates began to feel 

 the sharp pains in the side and shortness of breath which speak 

 so plainly and unpleasantly of an enlargement of that organ. 



