316 NEW GUINEA. [chap, xxxiv. 



common birds. Even pigeons were scarce, and in little 

 variety, although vi^e occasionally got the fine crown 

 pigeon, which was always we] come as an addition to our 

 scantily furnished larder. 



Just before the steamer arrived I had wounded my ankle 

 by clambering among the trunks and branches of fallen trees 

 (which formed my best hunting grounds for insects), and, 

 as usual with foot wounds in this climate, it turned into an 

 obstinate ulcer, keeping me in the house for several days. 

 When it healed up it was followed by an internal inflam- 

 mation of the foot, which by the doctor's advice I poulticed 

 incessantly for four or five days, bringing out a severe in- 

 flamed swelling on the tendon above the heel. This had to 

 be leeched, and lanced, and doctored with ointments and 

 poultices for several weeks, till I was almost driven to 

 despair, — for the weather was at length fine, and I was 

 tantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my door, 

 and thinking of the twenty or thirty new species of 

 insects that I ought to be getting every day. And this, 

 too, in New Guinea ' — a country which I might never visit 

 again, — a country which no naturalist had ever resided in 

 before, — a country which contained more strange and new 

 and beautiful natural objects than any other part of the 

 globe. The naturalist will be able to appreciate my feel- 

 ings, sitting from morning to night in my little hut, unable 

 to move without a crutch, and my only solace the birds my 



