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

XXV.] CERAM, CORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS. 273they could till the storm was over, by which time a flood camedown the river, which effectually stopped our further march,even had we wished to proceed. We then lighted fires ; I madesome coftee,_and my men roasted their fish and plantains, andas soon as it was dark, we made ourselves comfortable forthe night.Starting at six the next morning, we had three hours of thesame kind of walking, during which we crossed the river atleast tliirty or forty times, the water being generally knee-deep.Tliis brought us to a place where the road left the stream, andhere we stopped to breakfast. We then had a long walk overthe mountain, by a tolerable path, which reached an elevationof about fifteen hundred feet above the sea. Here I noticedone of the smallest and most elegant tree ferns I had ever seen,the stem being scarcely thicker than my thumb, yet reaching aheight of fifteen or twenty feet. I also caught a new butterflyof the genus Pieris, and a magnificent female specimen ofPapilio gambrisius, of which I had hitherto only found theniales, wliich are smaller and very different in colour. Descendingthe other side of tlie ridge, by a very steep path, we reachedanother river at a spot which is about the centre of the island,and which was to be our resting-place for two or three days.In a couple of hours my men had built a little sleeping-shedfor me, about eight feet by four, with a bench of split poles,they themselves occupying two or three smaller ones, which hadbeen put up by former passengers.The river here was about twenty yards wide, running over apebbly and sometimes a rocky bed, and bordered by steep hillswith occasionally flat swampy spots between their base and thestream. The whole country was one dense, unbroken, and verydamp and gloomy \drgin forest. Just at our resting-place therewas a little bush-covered island in the middle of the channel, sothat the opening in the forest made by the river was wider thanusual, and allowed a few gleams of sunshine to penetrate. Herethere were several handsome butterflies flying about, the finestof which, however, escaped me, and I never saw it again duringmy stay. In the two days and a half which we remained here,I wandered almost all day up and down the stream, searchingafter butterflies, of which I got, in all, fifty or sixty specimens,with several species quite new to me. There were many otherswhich I saw only once, and did not capture, causing me toregret that there was no village in these interior valleys whereI could stay a month. In the early part of each morning I wentout with my gun in search of birds, and two of my men were outalmost all day after deer ; but we were all equally unsuccessful,getting absolutely nothing the whole time we were in the forest.The only good bird seen was the fine Amboyna lory, but thesewere always too high to shoot ; besides this, the great ]\Ioluccanhombill, which I did not want, was almost tlie only bird metwith. I saw not a single ground-thrush, or kingfisher, or pigeon ;T