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

200 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.abundantly for ten or fifteen years, without any manure andAvitli scarcely any cultivation.I was delaj-ed a day by incessant rain, and then proceeded toPaughu, Avhich I reached just before the daily rain began at11 A.M. After leaving the summit level of the lake basin, theroad is carried along the slope of a fine forest ravine. Thedescent is a long one, so that I estimated tlie village to be notmore than 1,500 feet above the sea, yet I found the morningtemperature often 69', the same as at Tondano at least 600 or700 feet higher. I was pleased with the appearance of the place,which had a good deal of forest and wild country around it, andfound prepared for me a little house consisting only of averandah and a back room.This was only intended for visitorsto rest in, or to pass a night, but it suited me very well. I was.so unfortunate, however, as to lose both my hunters just at thistime. One had been left at Tondano with fever and diarrhoea,and the other was attacked at Langowan with inflammation ofthe chest, and as his case looked rather bad I had him sent backto Menado. The people here were all so busy with their riceharvest,which it was important for them to finish owing to theearly rains, that I could get no one to shoot for me.During the three weeks that I stayed at Panghu, it rainedneai'ly every day, either in the afternoon only, or all day long ;but there were generally a few hours sunshine in the morning,and I took advantage of these to explore the roads and paths,the rocks and raraies, in search of insects. These were notvery abundant, yet I saw enough to convince me that thelocality was a good one, had I been there at the beginningin.stead of at the end of the dry season. The natives broughtme daily a few insects obtained at the Sagueir palms, includingsome fine Cetonias and stag-beetles. Two little boys Avere verye.xpert with the blowpipe, and bi'ought me a good many smallbirds, which they shot with pellets of clay. Among these wasa pretty little flower-pecker of a new species (Prionochilusaureolimbatus), and several of the loveliest honeysuckers Ihad yet seen. My general collection of birds was, however,almost at a standstill ;to shoot for me, he was not good for much, and seldom broughtme more than one bird a day. The best thing he shot was thelarge and rare fruit-pigeon peculiar to Northern Celebes(Carpophaga forsteni), which I had long been seeking after.I was myself A'ery successful in one beautiful group of insects,the tiger-beetles, which seem more abundant and vai'ied lierefor though I at length obtained a manthan anywhere else in the Archipelago. I first met with themon a cutting in the road, where a hard clayey bank was partiallyovergrown with mosses and small ferns. Here I found runningabout a small olive-green species which never took flight ; andmore rarely a fine purplish black wingless insect, which wasalways found motionless in crevices, and was therefore probablynocturnal. It appeared to me to form a new genus. About