CDAP. xsv.l TRIP TO TUB INTFJUOR. 355 



furnish iim wit]i men to carry my baggage, and iiucoui- 

 pany me on my excursion. As the people of the village 

 wanted to be at home on Chi'istmaa-day, it was necessary 

 to start iis soon as possible ; so we agreed that the men 

 should be ready in two days, and I returned to make my 

 arrangements. 



I put up the smallest quantity of baggage possible for a 

 six days' ti'ip, and on the morning of December 18th we^ 

 left Makariki, with six men carrying niy baggage and iheir 

 own provisions, and a lad from Awaiya, who was accus- 

 tomed to catch butterflies for me. My two Amboyna 

 bunters I left behind to shoot and skin wliat birds they 

 could while I was away. Quitting tbe village, we first 

 walked briskly fur an liour through a dense tangled 

 undergrowth, dripping wet from a storm of the previous 

 night, and full of mud holes. After crossing several 

 small stream.'a we it>aclied one of the largest nvers in 

 Ceratn, called Euatan, %vhich it was necessary to cross. 

 It was both deep and rapid. The liaggage wad hret taken 

 over, parcel by parcel, on tbe men's heads, the water 

 reaching nearly up to their armpits, and then two men 

 returned to assist me. The water was above my waist, 

 and BO strong that I should certainly have been carried off 

 my feet had I attempted to cross alone; and it was a 

 matter of astonishment to me how tbe men could give 

 me any assistance, since I found the greatest ditliculty in 

 getting my foot down again when I had once moved it 

 off the bottom. The greater strength and gi\i5ping power 

 of their feet, from going always barefoot, no doubt gave 

 them a surer footing in the rapid water. 



^Vi'Ler well wringing out our wet clothes and putting 

 tliem on, we again proceeded along a similar narrow 

 forest track as before, choked with rotten leaves 

 and dead trees, and in tbe more open parts overgrown 

 with tangled vegetation. Another hour brought us to a 

 smaller stream flowing in a wide gravelly bed, up whicli 

 our road lay. Here we stayed haU' an hour to breakfast, 

 and then \vent on, continually crossing the stream, or 

 walkiug on its stony ond gmvelly banks, tdl about noon, 

 when it became roeky and enclosed by low liills. A little 

 further we entered a regular mouutaiu-gorge, and had to 



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