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tireless, anxious to please, and ready at all times, day or night, to do our bidding. Two of them, Luka and Huki, were especially useful to us. The latter was the more intelligent of the two, and was remarkably well informed regarding everything pertaining to the island. He knew the name of every point, headland, bay, etc., and his replies to our questions were given without hesitancy and so correctly, as we found by testing him, that he frequently surprised us. The writer obtained much information from him, and might have gained much more, regarding the native plants, insects, shells, etc., but unfortunately our interpreter, who had been but a short time on the island, was practically useless as a medium between us, and to understand each other's meaning was therefore most difficult. Owing to this fact, the want of facilities and conveniences for collecting and preserving specimens, and the absence of works of reference, but little could be accomplished in the particulars above mentioned.
   A source of great annoyance to us daring our trip was the hordes of flies which kept us company on the march, and then whenever we approached camp in the evening were greeted and cordially welcomed by other hordes which had been in previous possession of the locality. Many of the islands of the South Pacific are noted for the swarms of flies which infest them, one Rairoa, having been named by the navigator Schouten, 1616, Vliegen Islands by reason of the myriads which assailed and finally drove him to sea.
   Another, and in some respects even worse plague, was the fleas, which had their origin in the numerous dogs kept on the island.
   One more source of discomfort, in connection with our stay at the hospitable residence of Mr. Salmon, was the host of cockroaches which swarmed every part of the premises, measuring 2 or more inches in length, with antennæ, to correspond, and furnished with wings of a beautiful glistening brown.

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