a whole day of shouting and palaver, the chiefs decided that they 
were unable to break a precedent of their fathers and grandfathers 
and could not let us even go near the mountain. We had told them 
we were not interested in climbing it, nor in Investigating any 
of their sacred places, but all our appeals were in vain. 
One incident of the day came up for discussion also in the 
evening. We had bought a chicken from a town boy who had hung 
around the camp a good deal, and been occasionally useful because 
he spoke quite good English. We now learned that the chicken, 
for which we had payed l/6 (a high price) had been stolen from 
the wife of the Paramount Chief. 
April 14 - 
Upon the recommendation of the Chief and various of his 
henchmen, we started about ten o’clock this morning for Peabody’s 
Town. We were told that it was an hour and a half walk, and that 
there was plenty of high bush there, and a mountain almost as high 
as the G-ibi that we wanted to see. However, with collecting all 
along the way, and stops in two or three villages to ask for animals, 
it was after twelve when we reached the town. Sure enough, a 
mountain rose up in back of the town, and it was covered with thick 
jungle. We took a most miserable trail from the village, through 
swamps, saw grass that cut our knees and arms, and driver ants, 
and finally managed to cut a short path for ourselves into a dark 
and dripping forest. Here we squatted around our chop box and ate 
sardines and crackers and jam. Bill had brought derris root and 
intended to poison the fish in the stream, but Ralph found where the 
stream came out of the mountain, a lovely rocky spot with clear little 
pools of water and small water falls, and we spent an hour or more 
there, with the boys wading in after the fish were stunned and picking 
them up in Bill’s butterfly net* He- got many different kinds, some 
of them similar to the ones we got near our village, some of them 
quite different. The boys picked up a few snails and frogs which 
went into Museum jars, and Ralph got a tiny snake and a fair-sized 
land snail. Dr. Tengwall found a tiny fern that looked like moss 
growing on the tree trunks and on the rocks, and two or three plants 
that he couldn’t identify. I found another species of Polyrhachus, 
so all in all we considered the day worth the effort. 
We started back about three thirty, and clouds soon gathered 
and threatened rain. We had taken hammocks with us, but swung on 
a pole instead of a frame so that two boys could carry them, the trail 
being so narrow. However, we are a bit heavy for two boys to carry, 
and although I had intended to acaikxraas ride most of the way back 
I soon found that it would be far quicker to walk. After an hour* the 
rain began, and we walked more than half the way in a soaking down- 
pour. How good it was to get into camp and find that Charlie had 
hot tea waiting for us, and hot bath water i 
Mr. Porte bought a pangolin for us today, and one boy brought 
an alligator. The price on the pangolin was fair, but the alligator 
was too expensive for usi 
