we were told, had lost three of their children within a recent period, and their grief was deeply pronounced. They wore the usual native mourning of suits of charcoal, with which their bodies were blackened entirely. Strings of grey or lavender coloured beads were carried across their foreheads, and hung pendulous from their ears. The man wore an immense Cassowary plume, also blackened, and the woman had her breast covered with netting. Their appearance was so picturesque, that I was most anxious to include them in the group, but it required a good deal of persuasion from our interpreter to induce them to sit, and they accepted the tobacco presented them with apparent indifference. We then took a stroll of a few miles inland, and found it to be one of the most fertile tracts of country yet visited, containing miles of flat grassy plains interspersed with belts of tropical scrub, which would delight the botanist, stretching away to the rises inland, whose rich vegetation indicated soil of good quality. The country is admirably adapted for sugar, and the clearing of the scrub would cost comparatively little. I secured a couple of good views near a crossing, and in the bed of a creek called by the natives Ka Kalo. Walking across the bed of this creek, almost dry at the present season, and covered with sand and shingle, we were struck by the great depth of black fertile soil on the almost perpendicular banks. The vegetation was not unlike that to be seen in scrubs of the Clarence or Richmond rivers in New South Wales, but of a richer and more tropical type. Lovely parrots, parroquets, scrub pheasants, and white cockatoos, filled the air with their harsh cries, and a great variety of pigeons from the large Goura to the tiny bronze wing dove appeared in numbers. We saw a great variety of indigenous fruit trees, and heartily enjoyed a feed of mangoes which one or our black companions good-naturedly procured for us by climbing a large tree of that species, and shaking the ripe fruit in a perfect shower to the ground. Although the fruit, which is about the size of a goose-egg, is rather stringy in the flesh, its flavour is very delicate. On our way back to the ship we passed again through the village, and bought some spears and other weapons. They value their stone adzes and clubs very highly, and will rarely part with them except in exchange
