i48 WHITE— A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 



amongst the crowd, and I felt grieved to see the beastly habit 

 of chewing "Beetle Nut" carried to excess, some of the older 

 men had their features positively distorted through that 

 habit, if the habit is long continued gives the mouth a most 

 ghastly appearance. There are not so many big bushy heads 

 of hair amongst these men. Most of them have their hair cut 

 short, some had their heads shaved. Most of the boys about 

 ten or twelve years of age were .seen chewing the horrid com- 

 pound of nut, leaves and lime. Men and boys were out every 

 day with their bows and arrows and shot me lots of small 

 birds, great lizards and frogs, besides cuscus, rats, and bandi- 

 coots, it was holiday and feast time at Wanumbi while I was 

 there. The country all around our camp is low, and was 

 covered with a dense virgin scrub, and the soil does not seem to 

 be deep anywhere. The birds were not numerous, and strange 

 to say, I did not see a single adult great bird of paradise. Rats 

 were numerous and very troublesome about our camp. In- 

 sects were not abundant. I secured a few good beetles, and 

 one day secured about twenty-five butterflies, and many of the 

 species were those found over the North of Australia. One 

 must bear in mind that the month of July is not the best by any 

 means for insects. Several times during my stay here I have 

 taken two men and the boat at night and pulled down to the 

 yacht and back with the tide. I always choose the night, be- 

 cause the air is cool and pleasant, and it surprised me much 

 not to find more sand flies and rnosquitos; they were not very 

 troublesome, although we were surrounded by mangrove 

 swamps. The banks of the river as we went to and fro pre- 

 sented a very beautiful sight, the banks themselves were low 

 and muddy, covered at high water, but the river 

 was hidden by the rich green foliage of the man- 

 groves, which reached from the water's edge to 

 60 or 70 feet above it, to outward appearance as 

 dense as a wall with breaks here and there on either side when 

 small creeks and inlets join the main stream. Along the 

 river the birds were not so plentiful as would be expected. 

 We saw scarcely anything with the exception of a few small 

 kingfishers perched on bare twigs near the water or on a man- 

 ■ grove root. To-day, the 20th. I shifted camp and came- back 

 to the yacht for there is only Cockerell to skin, and he is over 

 done with material coming in. The same day we arrived at 

 the yacht canoes came down from Wanumbi with specimens. 

 With the exception of two wet days the weather has been 

 fine; the sky is always more or less overcast, and the sun 

 comes out at times very warm." 



