specimen of Papilio gambrisius, of which I bad hitherto I
only found the males, which are smaller and very different I
in colour. Descending the other side of the ridge, by a I
very steep path, we reached another river at a spot which I
is about the centre of the island, and which was to be our I
resting-place for two or three days. In a couple of hours I
my men had built a little sleeping-shed for me, about eight
feet by four, with a bench of split poles, they themselves I
occupying two or three smaller ones, which had been put
up by former passengers.
The river here was about twenty yards wide, running
over a pebbly and sometimes a . rocky bed, and bordered
by steep hills with occasionally flat swampy spots between
their base and the stream. The whole country
was one dense, unbroken, and very damp and gloomy
virgin forest. Just at our resting-place there was a little
bush-covered island in the middle of the channel, so that
the opening in the forest made by the river was wider
than usual, and allowed a few gleams of sunshine to
penetrate. Here there were several handsome butterflies
Hymg about, the finest of which, however, escaped me,
and I never saw it again during my stay. In the two
days and a half which we remained here, I wandered
almost all day up and down the stream, searching after
butterflies, of which I got, in all, fifty or sixty specimens,
with several species quite new to me. There were
Lany others which I saw only once, and did not capture,
Lausing me to regret that there was no village in these
[interior valleys where I could stay a month. In the early
Lart of each morning I went out with my gun in search of
[birds, and two of my men were out almost all day after
deer; but we were all equally unsuccessful, getting absolutely
nothing the whole time we were in the forest.
The only good bird seen was the fine Amboyna lory, but
[these were always too high to shoot; besides this, the
great Moluccan hornbill, which IO I did not want, was
I almost the only bird met with. I saw not a single ground-
thrush, or kingfisher, or pigeon.; and, in fact, have never
been in a forest so utterly desert of animal life as this
[appeared to be. Even in all other groups of insects,
except butterflies, there was the same poverty. I had
! hoped to find some rare tiger beetles, as I had done in
similar situations in Celebes; but, though I searched
| closely in forest, river-bed, and mountain-brook, I could
find nothing but the two common Amboyna species.
Other beetles there were absolutely none.
The constant walking in water, and over rocks and
: pebbles, quite destroyed the two pair of shoes I brought
with me, so that, on my return, they actually fell to
pieces, and the last day I had to walk in my stockings
very painfully, and reached home quite lame. On our
way back from Makariki, as on our way tbere, we had