t^UETHER EXPERIENCES OF ME. "FREsti, 
the difficult and dangerous descent on the other side— ^ 
dangerous because these trees generally lay up and down 
the slope of a very steep hill, and if one slipped on 
the wet or smooth surface of the log in changing 
from one ladder to another, small hope of freedom from 
broken bones, if you even escaped with life, for a slip 
on the top of that trunk would slip you down as far 
as it lay, and then with the impetus of course down 
the hill you would go. You would not reach the river 
in the gully below, as a black root or stump would 
soon stop the downward progress j but in what condi- 
tion? We shudder at the very remembrance, having 
personally {come through many of these experiences. 
Another plan of dodging the big “ doon trees was 
to creep under them! Possibly the large tree had a 
slight curve upwards, where it lay on the ground ; 
in this case no ladders were required — we tunnelled 
below them ! got some coolies with mamoties and dug 
away a quantity of earth, below the tree, so that we 
descended on one side, after a great deal of stooping 
and crouching got under it, and ascended on the other 
side. Many a hat, many a jacket, put on clean in the 
morning, when the bearer returned to breakfast, 
carried very vivid, or rather livid, marks of the tun- 
nels under the ‘ ‘ doon ” trees. There was also another 
manner of topping these trees, which was done by cut- 
ting with an axe large chips in the trunk, on both 
sides, forming a sort of rude step in the log, but this 
was mostly used by the coolies, who are very apt and 
clever at inserting their toes into these nitches, and 
skipping over like monkeys. It was hardly safe for 
one with shoes, which are almost sure to slip on the 
timbers, and then down the hill you would go, as 
before explained. Sometimes on coming to an unusually 
difficult and large tree to cross over, we have taken 
off the canvas shoes and successfully made the passage 
cooly fashion, of course having first put the shoes in 
our coat pocket. On one occasion, while performing 
this feat, or rather after performing it, on putting 
the hand into the coat pocket for the shoes, in order 
to put them on and resume the journey, no shoes were 
there! While clambering over the top of the tree the 
shoes had fallen out, had fallen and rolled down the 
steep hill, and were nowhere visible; and here we 
were fixed, in the middle of a steep new clearing, 
without shoes. To the general reader this may seem 
a laughable occurrence, but we hope he may never 
experience it. While many incidents of much graver 
importance than this have long been forgotten, this 
never has been. Without going into the wbys and 
wherefores, if any one (European) wishes to have a 
direful revenge on his worst enemy — place him on 
