cost of building a house, for the rent of a small portion of it
for a few weeks. As the only difficulty now was a pecuniary one, I got
out about ten yards of cloth, an axe, with a few beads and some tobacco,
and sent them as my final offer for the part of the house which I had
before pointed out. This was accepted after a little more talk, and I
immediately proceeded to take possession.

The house was a good large one, raised as usual about seven feet on
posts, the walls about three or four feet more, with a high-pitched
roof. The floor was of bamboo laths, and in the sloping roof way an
immense shutter, which could be lifted and propped up to admit light
and air. At the end where this was situated the floor was raised about a
foot, and this piece, about ten feet wide by twenty long, quite open to
the rest of the house, was the portion I was to occupy. At one end of
this piece, separated by a thatch partition, was a cooking place, with
a clay floor and shelves for crockery. At the opposite end I had my
mosquito curtain hung, and round the walls we arranged my boxes and
other stores, fated up a table and seat, and with a little cleaning and
dusting made the place look quite comfortable. My boat was then hauled
up on shore, and covered with palm-leaves, the sails and oars brought
indoors, a hanging-stage for drying my specimens erected outside the
house and another inside, and my boys were set to clean their gnus and
get all ready for beginning work.

The next day I occupied myself in exploring the paths in the immediate
neighbourhood. The small river up which we had ascended ceases to be
navigable at this point, above which it is a little rocky brook, which
quite dries up in the hot season. There was now, however, a fair stream
of water in it; and a path which was partly in and partly by the side of
the water, promised well for insects, as I here saw the magnificent
blue butterfly, Papilio ulysses, as well as several other fine species,
flopping lazily along, sometimes resting high up on the foliage which
drooped over the water, at others settling down on the damp rock or on
the edges of muddy pools. A little way on several paths branched off
through patches of second-growth forest to cane-fields, gardens, and
scattered houses, beyond which again the dark wall of verdure striped
with tree-trunks, marked out the limits of the primeval forests. The
voices of many birds promised good shooting, and on my return I found
that