WHITE — A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 183 



boughs and perched in a tree awaiting for the "Great Birds'" 

 to come to feed in the tree, when he would be prepared to 

 shoot them with his bow and arrows. Samuel White writes 

 in Iris notebook under heading of 28th July:— "We have been 

 skinning all day, but there was a great falling off 

 in the quantity of things brought in by the natives. I 

 skinned nine 'Birds of Paradise to-day, which were in 

 all stages of plumage from full to no plumes at all. 

 They are chocolate colour of different tints all over r 

 and often quite destitute of plumes. I have gone in 

 to-day for ethnological specimens a good deal. 



A variety of things were brought and offered, but every- 

 thing is very dear, the natives know not how to ask enough. To- 

 morrow I shall go over on the Wokan side to try for some flies, 

 as I think it is a good place." Then again on the 29th he 

 wrote:— "This morning at sunrise I had a boat swung out. 

 Two of the crew with Cockerell and myself started to ascend 

 the creek on the Wokan side of the Watalli Channel. This 

 creek I call Cockerell's creek, because Cockerell was the firtft 

 of our party who ascended it. I took provision for two days, 

 a flv net, boxes, pins, bottles, etc., but no gun, for I intended 

 giving, up all my time to insects and leaving Cockerell 

 to look after the birds. We crossed in the boat, and down 

 the Watalli Channell about 11 miles, when we arrived at the 

 mouth of the creek running in on the Wokan side, it enters 

 in a northerly direction, and winds about for the distance of 

 about a mile, through a densely-wooded and picturesque 

 country, the banks on either side were rocky and thickly 

 covered with beautiful and varied vegetation. It was early 

 morning, and although they day was a cloudy one and the sky 

 threatening the picture around us was very beautiful. The 

 calls of many birds were heard as is usual at early morn in the 

 tropical scrubs and forests, and amongst others we heard the 

 loud "Wark, Wark" of the Great Bird of Paradise. 



After we had rowed about a mile in this creek in salt 

 water, our progress was suddenly ende>d by a huge reef across 

 the creek, about four feet out of high water, here the salt- 

 water ceased, and fresh water runs into it during rains. We 

 now left the boat which I sent off to the yacht, with orders to 

 meet us in the morning of the next day at the same place. My 

 companion and I walked up the creek for about four miles, 

 through fresh water varing in depth from ankle deep to up 

 to our waists. The bottom of the creek for the whole dis- 

 tance is bare rock (Coraline limestone) the water had ceased 



