600 Mr. D. A. Baiuierman on the 



24thj 1909j and remained until iMarcli the 23rd. He tlien 

 proceeded, via Fernando Po, to the mainland to commence 

 liis now memorable exploration of the Peak o£ Camaroon. 

 Alexander was gifted with excellent descriptive powers, and 

 as Prince's Island, save to a very few, is not by any means 

 well known, I shall make no apology for including his 

 graphic notes "^ on the physical conditions of the island at 

 the time of his visit. 



The diaries which contain Boyd Alexander's field-notes 

 on the present collections and the descriptions ot the 

 islands which he visited, came to light under most tragic 

 circumstances^ Avhich have already been related in Mr, 

 Herbert Alexander's book He writes : — " When all else 

 of value that he possessed had been looted by his murderers, 



the two volumes of his diary were found untouched 



in a broken box upon the battlefield of Ilarne by the French, 

 who, led by the warning, pressed forward and recovered 

 his bones. Nearly a year afterwards the diary was handed 

 over by the French authorities to Miss Macleod ■" 



The following account of Prince's Island I have pieced 

 together from the '' Diary of his last Journey," to which 

 I have already called attention. Although in that case 

 the published notes were arranged under various dates, 

 I have attempted to connect the many allusions to the 

 character of the country so that some idea may be formed 

 of this tropical island and the conditions under which the 

 birds live. If fuller details are needed Mr. Herbert 

 Alexander's book will satisfy every requirement. 



Boyd Alexander' s Det cription of Prince's Island. 



The appearance of the island from the seaboard is very 

 luxuriant; the banks clothed right down to the water's edge 

 with thick forest-growth. We made our camp not far below 



* These notes have already been published in a much wider form in 

 the book entitled ' Boyd Alexander's last Journey ' edited by his brother, 

 Mr. Herbert Alexander, and published by Edward Arnold. I am much 

 indebted to Mr. Alexander for allowing me to make use of this work, 

 which, besides being a memoir, also contains Boyd Alexander's private 

 diary of his last Journey. 



