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 was blown to pieces, and some conception of the force of the wind may be formed from the fact of my being bodily carried away some twelve feet with a screen which I had seized with the intention of saving it. The floor of the verandah being six feet from the ground it was a marvel that a fourteen stone Icarus like myself escaped without broken bones and nothing worse than a few contusions, but as work was out of the question under these conditions I was forced to put my mortification in my pipe and smoke it, while Sir Peter and his secretary, having got through their despatches, confer with Captain Musgrove, the Assistant Deputy Commissioner, as to the selection of a site for a store-house to contain the articles now being landed with infinite trouble from the "Herbert." As there is no jetty these have to be lightered in more or less primitive fashion, or towed ashore. The construction of a jetty must evidently be one of the first works undertaken, and as mangrove piles can be procured close at hand, and the natives are accustomed to this kind of work, the cost would not be very great. The superintendence of erection of the store and dwelling-houses will occupy Captain Musgrave for weeks to come. It is a matter of no small difficulty to acquire land, after making a selection, for the native holdings are so subdivided and cut up into sections of so many shapes and sizes, with rights of way, water privileges, easements and other obstacles attached to the transfer of real property which would do credit to the ingenuity of a civilized conveyancer. On a comparatively barren hill the Commissioner has had to pay at the rate of twenty shillings an acre, and be glad to secure even at that price.

On Monday, the 21st, Mr. H. O. Forbes and party were ready to start on their inland expedition, and I took a couple of photographs of them before they left. Their first depot will be formed at Sogeri, a Koiari village, about forty miles inland. There they will pass the rainy season, and start for their object point, summit of Mount Owen Stanley, early next year. As the Koiaris are friendly and intelligent, and the climate is comparatively salubrious, their prospects of a successful expedition seem very promising. Soon after 9 a.m. on the same morning we got up steam, and having bid farewell to our kind and hospitable