228 NATIVE HUTS. 



ground, and the upper part was accessible by a 

 notched post leaning against it at the back. The 

 floor of this upper story consisted of stout poles laid 

 crossways on the frame-work, and covered by the 

 flattened rind apparently of some kind of palm, form- 

 ing very fair planks, an inch thick, and the size of 

 our flooring planks. The back of the house, looking 

 towards the woods, was quite open, the other three 

 sides had walls composed of palm- leaves twisted 

 through upright poles or rods. The roof was 

 thatched also with palm-leaves,* very ingeniously 

 woven or twisted through a frame-work of sticks ; 

 it was quite water-tight. The ridge of the gable 

 was about ten feet above the floor, and the side 

 walls about four feet high. The end looking on the 

 river had at one side a small recess, or doorway, with 

 a rude little staircase leading to the ground. There 

 were one or two fire-places made of a patch of clay, 

 two or three inches thick, resting on the floor, over 

 each of which was a frame of slender sticks, two feet 

 high, as if to hang things over the fire. 



A partial clearing had been made round the huts, 

 many large trees having been felled by repeated 

 cuts that seemed almost too sharp and broad to be 

 those of a stone axe. Several young cocoa-nuts and 

 plantains were growing in this clearing, and it 

 looked exactly like the commencement of a new set- 

 tlement by some New Guinea squatters. Dry fire- 



* We afterwards found this was the sago-palm. 



