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

262 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.Others have a single unbranchecl stem, six or seven feet high,the ujDjDer part clothed "svith the spirally arranged leaves, andbearing a single terminal fruit as large as a swan's egg. Othersof intermediate size have irregular clusters of rough red fruits,and all have moi'e or less spiny-edged leaves and ringed stems.The young plants of the larger species have smooth, glossy thickleaves, sometimes ten feet long and eight inches wide, wliich areused all over the Moluccas and New Guinea to make " cocoyas "or sleeping mats, which are often very prettily ornamented mthcoloured patterns. Higher up on the hill is a forest of immensetrees, among which those pioducing the resin called dammar(Dammara sp.) are abundant. The inhabitants of several smallvillages in Batchian are entirely engaged in searching for thisproduct, and making it into torches by pounding it and fillingit into tubes of palm leaves about a yard long, which are theonly lights used by many of the natives. Sometimes the dammaraccumulates in large masses of ten or twenty pounds' weight,either attached to the trunk, or found buried in the ground atthe foot of the trees. The most extraordinaiy trees of the forestare, however, a kind of fig, the aerial roots of which form apyramid near a hundi'ed feet high, terminating just where thetree branches out above, so that tliere is no real trunk. Thispyramid or cone is formed of roots of every size, mostly descendingin straight lines, but more or less obliquely—and so crossingeach other, and connected by cross branches, which grow fromone to another ; as to form a dense and complicated network, towhich nothing but a j^hotograph could do justice (see illustrationat page 64). The Kanary is also abundant in this forest, the nutof which has a very agreeable flavour, and pi'oduces an excellentoil. The fleshy outer covering of the nut is the favourite foodof the great green pigeons of these islands (Carpophaga perspicillata),and their hoarse cooings and heavy flutterings amongthe branches can be almost continually heard.After ten days at Langundi, finding it impossible to get thebird I was particularly in searcli of (the Nicobar pigeon, or anew species allied to it), and finding no new birds, and very fewinsects, I left early on the morning of April 1st, and in theevening entered a river on the main island of Batchian, (Langundi,like Kasserota, being on a distinct island), where someMalays and Galela men have a small village, and have made extensiverice-fields and plantain grounds. Here we found a goodhouse near the river bank, where the water was fresh and clear,and the owner, a respectable Batchian Malay, offei'ed me sleepingroom and the use of the verandah if I liked to stay. Seeingforest all round within a short distance, I accepted his ofier,and the next morning before breakfast walked out to exj^lore,and on the skirts of the forest captured a few interestinginsects.Afterwards, I found a path which led for a mile or morethrough a very fine forest, richer in palms than any I had seen