CH. IV TALISSE ISLAXD 61 



immediately and Mils the rest. It was absolutely necessary, 

 therefore, to attend to my collections as soon as I returned 

 to my hut, and to keep only one or two choice creatures 

 alive in separate glass jars in the coolest places I could find. 

 At first I was inclined to be dissatisfied that I could utilise 

 only five days on the reefs in the fortnight, but after a time 

 I found that, during those five days, I could obtain more 

 material to work upon than would last for two fortnights ; 

 in fact, the difficulty was to finish the examination and 

 preservation of the material I obtained at one tide before 

 it was time to work upon the next. But, besides this, 

 I foimd it very important to keep well up to date as far as 

 my writing was concerned. It is surprising how very soon 

 one forgets facts and details which have made such an 

 impression at the time that one fondly imagines they will 

 never be forgotten. Letters, diaries, notes, and labels take 

 up a great deal of time and energy, and it was as much as 

 I could do to keep abreast with the times in that respect. 



The morning's work done, I would have my luncheon 

 brought in. I need not enter into particulars : lunch was 

 the same as breakfast, and breakfast the same as dinner. 

 Each meal consisted of boiled rice flavoured with curry and 

 whatever fish, flesh, or fowl I could get. I generally kept 

 a stock of chickens, but, as many of them would run wild 

 in the woods, or be killed by snakes at night, or otherwise 

 disappear, and as my commissariat arrangements with 

 Likupang and ilanado were not always in working order, I 

 sometimes ran short of these useful fowls, and then I had 

 to rely upon the produce of my gun. I have tried at times 

 very many kinds of game for food, such as baboons, bats, 

 parrots, sandpipers, pigeons, bivalves of many kinds, and 

 cuttlefish, but, as the resources of my kitchen were hmited, 

 I can only say with varying success. ^Monkey is not bad — 

 I could recommend it as an entree, but it is too tasty and 



