and wrote Bourget a dedication; no use resisting; it's
a love affair. O, he's exquisite, I bless you for the gift of him. I
have really enjoyed this book as I--almost as I--used to enjoy books
when I was going twenty-twenty-three; and these are the years for
reading!

R. L. S.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

_[Vailima] Tuesday, Dec. 1891._

SIR,--I have the honour to report further explorations of the course of
the river Vaea, with accompanying sketch plan. The party under my
command consisted of one horse, and was extremely insubordinate and
mutinous, owing to not being used to go into the bush, and being
half-broken anyway--and that the wrong half. The route indicated for my
party was up the bed of the so-called river Vaea, which I accordingly
followed to a distance of perhaps two or three furlongs eastward from
the house of Vailima, where the stream being quite dry, the bush thick,
and the ground very difficult, I decided to leave the main body of the
force under my command tied to a tree, and push on myself with the point
of the advance guard, consisting of one man. The valley had become very
narrow and airless; foliage close shut above; dry bed of the stream much
excavated, so that I passed under fallen trees without stooping.
Suddenly it turned sharply to the north, at right angles to its former
direction; I heard living water, and came in view of a tall face of rock
and the stream spraying down it; it might have been climbed, but it
would have been dangerous, and I had to make my way up the steep earth
banks, where there is nowhere any looting for man, only for trees, which
made the rounds of my ladder. I was near the top of this climb, which
was very hot and steep, and the pulses were buzzing all over my body,
when I made sure there was one external sound in my ears, and paused to
listen. No mistake; a sound of a mill-wheel thundering, I thought, close
by, yet below me, a huge mill-wheel, yet not going steadily, but with a
_schottische_ movement, and at each fresh impetus shaking the mountain.
There, where I was, I just put down the sound to the mystery of the
bush; where no sound now surprises me--and any sound alarms; I only
thought it would give Jack a fine fright, down where he stood tied to a
tree by himself, and he was badly enough scared when I left him. The
good folks at home identified it; it was a sharp earthquake.

[Illustration:
1. _Mepi tree._ 4, 4. _Banana patches_
2