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

—XXX.] THE ARU ISLANDS.—RESIDEXCE IX DOBBO. 331and of lizards were circumstances that recalled the prolificregions of South America, more especially the abundance andvaried colours of the little jumping spiders which abound onflowers and foliage, and ax'e often perfect gems of beauty. Theweb-spinning species were also more numerous than I had everseen them, and were a great annoyance, stretching their netsacross the footpaths just about the height of my face ; and thethreads composing these are so strong and glutinous as to requiremuch trouble to free one's self from them. Then their inhabitants,great yellow-spotted monsters with bodies two inches long, andlegs in proportion, are not jileasant things to run one's noseagainst while pursuing some gorgeous butterfly, or gazing aloftin search of some strange-voiced bird. I soon found it necessarynot only to brush away the web, but also to destroy thespinner ;for at first, having cleared the path one day, I foundthe next morning that the industrious insects had spread theirnets again in the very same i^laces.The lizards were equally striking by their numbers, variety,and the situations in which they were found. The beautifulblue-tailed sjDecies so abundant in Ke was not seen here. TheAru lizards are more varied but more sombre in their coloursshades of green, grey, brown, and even black, being very frequentlyseen. Every shrub and herbaceous plant was alivewith them ; every rotten trunk or dead branch served as astation for some of these active little insect-hunters, who, I feai',to satisfy their gross apjietites, destroy many gems of the insectworld, which would feast the eyes and deliglit the hearts of ourmore discriminating entomologists. Another curious feature ofthe jungle here was the multitude of sea-shells everywhere metwith on the ground and high up on the branches and foliage, allinhabited by hermit-crabs, who forsake the beach to wander inthe forest. I have actually seen a spider carrying away a goodsizedshell and devouring its (probably juvenile) tenant. Onthe beach, which I had to walk along every morning to reachthe forest, these creatures swarmed by thousands. Every deadshell, from the largest to the most minute, was appropriated bythem. They formed small social parties of ten or twenty aroundbits of stick or seaweed, but dispersed hurriedly at the sound ofapproaching footstei:)s. After a windy night, that nasty-lookingChinese delicacy the sea-slug was sometimes thrown up on thebeach, which was at such times thickly strewn with some of themost beautiful shells that adorn our cabinets, along with fragmentsand masses of coral and strange sponges, of which IIjicked up more than twenty different sorts. In many casessponge and coral are so much alike that it is only on touchingtliem that they can be distinguished. Quantities of seaweed,too, are thrown up ; but strange as it may seem, these are farless beautiful and less varied than may be found on any favourablei^art of our own coasts.The natives here, even those.who seem to be of pure Pajnian