219 other conversations. The representatives of the village, whoever they might be, journeying up and down the trails soon conveyed the instructions they had received to their fellow villagers. It meant that every man in the village who felt like having a smoke, as well as pickanninies and maris, was a potential collector. Soon the material began to appear in camp. The great number of leaf packages we had to unwrap each time a delegation came with an interpreter to do business bore witness to the number of unseen persons who were serving us. Before we are finished these Kanakas may yet do something which will change our opinion of them. The hunters who have spotted birds in the trees, which we couldn't see ourselves, and climbed down places we couldn't climb down to get them, may suddenly take fancies to scare every bird away or to pull the feathers out of the ones we shoot. The faithful bug collectors, who have deluged us with invaluable longicorns may commence sending in spitballs. I hesitate to conclude so soon that natives are a boon to science due to the great eminence of members of the opposite school. There must be a catch in it somewhere. January 22nd. Another very fine Sunday. Started up the mountain after lunch with Ona. We were in search of rare birds; redbreasts, hawks, thrushes, and crested pigeons. The weather was so fair even at the summit that I thought unkindly of the early pages of this chron- icle, which have the mountains eternally enshrouded in fog. It is almost eternally that they are enshrouded.