Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 388, 15 October 1903, Page 7

Traveller.

BOOBIES OF FERNANDO PO. SKjjjKEUETER'S representative has had jling aa interesting interview with Ayfi Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, Ri£U Brigade, who has just reached England on the conclusion of an interesting expedition over the little known Spanish Island of Fernando Po. Although lying within a few miles of the Niger Coast and in the direct track of staamers, the island is practically un. known except for a narrow cultivated belt round the coast. The mountainous interior, consisting of dense forest and jangle, is given over entirely to a curious tribe of natives, the majority of whom had never seen a white man. Of the natives o? the island Lieutenant Boyd Alexander said : •They are a curious and timid race, <j lite unlike anything I have seen on the Wtst Coast, and of an entirely low type. Except for the purpess of going out on organised drinking bouts many of them never leave their primitive dwellings among the rocks, and generally speaking they bad never before seen a white man. They are known as Bxsbies. They are of poor physique, and are in fact dying of palm nine and rum. Usually th9y are quite naked, except for a curious straw bonnet wire 1 ! they wear. Sjme, however, add to this a scanty loin cloth. They make themselves mora*hideous than they would otherwise be by painting their bodies with coloured mud, and a plaster of this mixture, which is bright red, on the lower part of the face renders them particularly unattractive. ' Their diit is unspeakable. They never wast, but to the>r arms is attached, by means of a hempen band, a knife, which they use to scrape eff the filth in which they are encased. They manage, too, to induce deformities by winding tightly round the upper arms and below the knee strong woven bands. They are exceedingly timid, and often when they caught sight of my party coming up a narrow track they would rush into the depths of the forest and set up a weird and fearsome wall, in which their dbgß joined.' Lieutenant Boyd Alexander secured nearly 500 specimpns of birds, thirty-six of which are new to science. He states as a carious fact that the birds, mammals, plants are for the most part qaite unlifte the West African forms, but are similar to those found on the eastern Bide of the continent.

LIFE ON A CATTLE BOAT. When one reads in the papers about the enormous number of cattle imported every yaar, one is apt to overlook the cattle's point of view. Recently a good deal of attention has been directed to the trade of bringing cattle from the Argentine Papublic to Europe, but no one seems to have a word to say with regard to the way in which the cattle are carried. Life en a cattle boat is not very exhilarating at the best of times, but when 'the stormy winds do blow' the crew of an ordinary boat are threatened with serious danger. The picture of a cattle boat in a rough sea does not in any way exaggerate the facts of the case. Bringing the Animals luoabd, The task of bringing the animals on board the vessel ia no light one. First of all the cattle have to be selected and driven to a railway station. They are closely packed in special trucks, arranged something after tne plan of a vestibule train. The cattle are taken to the docks, and each beast steps into a box, which is then lifted by a crane and swung on to a cattle boat. The cattle are then penned up, and each beast is tied by a head-rope to its place in the pen. Tinre it remains —bar accidents, which happen not infrequently—until Birkenhead or Deptford is reached. The sheep come on board up inclined gangways; they are penned over the cattle.- A properly-trained decoy sheep is used, and people who always regard sheep as being particularly silly animals weuid change their opinion were they to see one of these decoy sheep leading the way £ur a whole flook of its fellows up the gangway and thence to the pens.

Bough Weather.

In fine weather the cattle and sheep are oy no means badly off, tut when heavy eoas are rolling the animals fare very badly. The sheep and cattle slip about, timbers are bent and splintered, some of the pens break, and some of the animals get loose. In all probability the water sweeps through the pens, carrying with it buckets, fodder, manuie, etc., in all directions. Many of the animals get maimed, limbs and horns are broken, and the poor beasts stagger about the slippery deck in a frantic struggle to obtain a firm foothold. Any member of the crew who maj have to move about a cattle boat at such a time does so at the risk of hie life, especially when darkness has set in. It must be remembered that on cattle boats there are no handrails, or electric lights, or other safeguards to lccimotioD. In spite of all these difficulties, however, men have to get about the vessel, to attend to the animals. The feeding watering on a voyage are very important, and practically" everything depends" upon the 'capatz' or 'charge man.' If he is a good man, and up to his work, the losses on the voyage will be comparatively small.