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

190 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.Near the village are the coffee plantations. The trees areplanted in rows, and are kept topped to about seven feet high.Tliis causes the lateral branches to grow very strong, so thatsome of the trees become perfect hemispheres, loaded with fruitfrom top to bottom, and pi'oducing from ten to twenty poundseach of cleaned coffee annually. These plantations were allformed by the Government, and are cultivated by the villagersunder the direction of their chief. Certain days are apjDointedfor weeding or gathering, and the whole working populationare summoned by sound of gong. An account is kept of thenumber of hours work done by each family, and at the year'send the produce of the sale is divided among them proportionately.The coffee is taken to Government stores established atcentral places over the whole country, and is paid for at a lowfixed price. Out of this a certain percentage goes to the cliiefsand majors, and the remainder is divided among the inhabitants.This system works very well, and I believe is at present farbetter for the people than free-trade would be. There are alsolarge rice-fields, and in this little village of seventy houses Iwas informed that a hundred pounds worth of rice was soldannually.I had a small house at the very end of the village, almosthanging over tlie iDrecipitous .slope down to the stream, andwith a splendid view from the verandali. The thermometer inthe morning often stood at 62^ and never rose so high as 80°, sothat with the thin clothing used in the tropical plains we werealways cool and sometimes positively cold, while the spout ofwater where I went daily for my bath had quite an icy feel.Although I enjoyed myself very much among these fine mountainsand forests, T was somewhat disappointed as to my collections.There was hardly any jjerceptible difference betweenthe animal life in this temperate region and in the torrid plainsbelow, and what difference did exist was in most respects disadvantageousto me. There seemed to be nothing absolutelypeculiar to this elevation. Birds and quadrupeds were lessplentiful, but of the same species. In insects there seemed tobe more difference. The curious beetles of the family Cleridse,which are found chiefly on bark and rotten wood, were finerthan I have seen them elsewhere. The beautiful Longicornswere scarcer than usual, and the few butterflies were all oftropical species. One of these, Papilio blumei, of which I obtaineda few specimens only, is among the most magnificent Ihave ever seen. It is a green and gold swallow-tail, with azureblue.spoon-shaped tails, and was often seen flying about thevillage when the sun shone, but in a very shattered condition.The great amount of wet and cloudy weather was a greatdrawback all the time I was at Rurukan.Even in the vegetation thci'e is very little to indicate elevation.The trees are more covered with lichens and mosses, andthe ferns and tree-ferns are finer and more luxuriant than I