14 
THE KILIMA-N JAR 0 EXPEDITION. 
with my plans, I not only had to show the men how 
to build houses, where to construct roads and bridges, 
and lay out plantations, but I must also shoot and skin 
birds, gather and press plants, collect beetles, and 
catch butterflies. In a moist climate like that of 
Kilima-njaro the labour involved in making good 
botanical collections alone was very great, and in all 
this I had no help. My Zanzibar porters, although 
excellent, hardworking, faithful fellows, evinced no 
aptitude whatever for natural history collecting. In 
spite of my repeated and painstaking instructions, 
they would bring me flowers without leaves, and leaves 
without flowers. They preferred catching butterflies 
with their fingers to using a net, and thought that an 
insect in fragments was quite as satisfactory as a 
whole specimen. In short I found that if any work 
was to be of use in collecting, it must proceed solely 
from my own efforts. I merely mention these diffi¬ 
culties so that my readers may properly appreciate the 
character of the task I was called on to perform. 
The instructions given me by the Kilima-njaro Com¬ 
mittee were to proceed direct to Mount Kilima-njaro, 
reside in the vicinity of the mountain for at least six 
months, and collect as much as possible near the snow¬ 
line. As already mentioned, funds to the extent of 
1000k were granted me, and besides that, the Royal 
Geographical Society generously provided me with a 
complete set of instruments for making astronomical 
and meteorological observations. I ought also to 
mention that Messrs. Howard and Son made me a 
most liberal present of quinine, an item of the outfit 
which would have amounted under ordinary circum¬ 
stances to a considerable expense, and other leading 
purveyors treated me with great generosity, so that I 
was altogether most kindly supported in my under- 
