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 p] auks, 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 w T alls composed of palm- leaves twisted 

 through upright poles or rods. The roof was 

 thatched also w T ith 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 w hich 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 Bago-palm. 



