When in town Browne and the Lieutenant had bought some shorts and some navy-blue putties, which they thought would be much cooler and more serviceable than duck suits; so during our time in camp our uniform consisted of shorts, putties, and shirts, and of course sun helmets, which are indispensable in that climate. At half-past seven we cooked some eggs we had brought with us and got our supper ready. Browne caused us much amusement, as his only idea of cooking eggs was to put them all into a saucepan full of _cold_ water and stir them vigorously until they boiled! However, I must admit that none of us knew _much_ about cooking, and we conducted some fearful and wonderful experiments in that line while we were in camp! After supper we were quite ready for bed, so we turned in. Next morning there was much to be done, so we were up by 6 o’clock; and before breakfast we fixed up our range-finder and dumaresque on the roof of the observation hut and rigged up the flexible voice-pipe. After breakfast we repitched the tent a little further round, where the prevailing breeze would blow through it and keep it a bit cooler. Apparently the “Tommies” who preceded us were a stuffy lot with no undue craving for fresh air! Then we contrived a pantry in the back of the tent on a wooden table, and here we installed the filter we had brought from the ship, as well as all our plates and dishes and the stove. Further, we engaged a native boy as general factotum to help with our _ménage_ and do such cooking as we could not manage on the stove. We also hired a bike from the ordnance officer at the port. When all this was accomplished a trial run of ranges and deflections with the ship occupied us until lunch-time. During the day a native kept the look-out from the watch-hut, reporting to us as soon as anything was sighted at sea. Next morning I was sent to the pier on the bicycle to catch the 11.30 boat and to go to our ship and obtain from the bo’sun a broom and one or two other things we needed. I caught the boat all right, lunched on the “——” after putting in a “chit” for the broom, etc., and returned to the shore in the 1.30 boat. The broom proved a most awkward thing to convey by bike, and it was horribly in the way of my knees. When I was about halfway to the camp I got so tied up with the beastly thing that I fell off, bike and broom on top of me! When I picked myself up I found that the crank of the left pedal had been bent in the fall. However, the machine, though more wobbly than ever, was still ridable, so I finished the journey gingerly and without further accident.