The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

122 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [cHAr.seldom "without a heavy payment of pricks and scratches andtorn clothes could the prize be won. The dry volcanic soil andai'id climate seem favourable to the production of such stuntedand thorny vegetation, for the natives assured me that this wasnothing to the thorns and prickles of Sumbawa, whose surfacestill bears the covering of volcanic ashes thrown out forty yearsago by the terrible eruption of Tomboro. Among the shrubsand trees that are not prickly the Ap)0cynace8e were mostabundant, their bilobed fruits of varied form and colour, andoften of most tempting appearance, hanging everywhere by thewaysides as if to invite to destruction the weary traveller whomay be unawai^e of their poisonous properties. One in particularwith a smooth shining skin of a golden orange colour, rivals inappearance the golden apples of the Hesperides, and has greatattractions for many birds, from the white cockatoos to thelittle yellow Zosterops, who feast on the crimson seeds whichare displayed when the fruit bursts open. The great palmcalled "Gubbong" by the natives, a species of Corj-pha, is themost striking feature of the plains, whei'e it grows by thousandsand appears in three different states—in leaf, in flower and fruit,or dead. It has a lofty cylindrical stem about a hundred feethigh and two to tliree feet in diameter ; the leaves are large andfan-shaj^ed, and fall off when the tree flowers, which it does onlyonce in its life in a Imge terminal spike, on which are producedmasses of a smooth round fruit of a green colour and about anWhen these ripen and fall the tree dies, andinch in diameter.remains standing a year or two before it falls. Trees in leafonly are far more numerous than those in flower and fruit,while dead trees are scattered here and there among them.The trees in fruit are the resort of the great green fruit pigeons,wliich have been already mentioned. Ti'oops of monkeys(Macacus cynomolgus) may often be seen occupying a tree,showering down the fruit in great profusion, chattering whendisturbed, and making an enormous rustling as they scamperoff" among tlie dead jDalm leaves ; while the pigeons have a loudbooming voice more like the roar of a wild beast than the noteof a bird.My collecting operations here were carried on under morethan usual difficulties. One small room had to serve for eating,sleeping and working, for storehouse and dissecting-room ; in itwere no shelves, cupboards, chairs or tables ; ants swarmed ineveiy part of it, and dogs, cats and fowls entered it at pleasure.Besides this it was the parlour and reception-room of my host,and I was obliged to consult his convenience and that of thenumerous guests wlio visited us. My principal piece of furniturewas a box, wliich served me as a dining-table, a seat while skinningbirds, and as the receptacle of the birds when skinned anddried. To keejD them free from ants we borrowed, with somedifficulty, an old l^ench, the four legs of which being placed incocoa-nut shells tilled Avith water kept us tolerably free from