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

XXX.] THE ARU ISLANDS.—RESIDENCE IN DOBBO. 333extending some miles beyond the mainland, and forming the" blakang tana," or " back country," of the t)-aders, being theprincipal seat of the pearl, tripang, and tortoiseshell fisheries.To the mainland many of the birds and animals of the countryare altogether confined ; the Birds of Paradise, the black cockatoo,the great brush-turkey, and the cassowary, are none of themfound on Wamma, or any of the detached islands. I did not,liowever, expect in this excursion to see any decided diflerencein the forest or its productions, and was therefore agreeablysurprised. The beach was overhung with the drooping branchesof large trees, loaded with Orchidete, ferns, and otlier epiphytalplants. In the forest there was more variety, some parts beingdry, and with trees of a lower growth, while in others therewere some of the most beautiful palms I have ever seen, with aperfectly straight, smooth, slender stem, a hundred feet high,and a crown of handsome drooping leaves. But the greatestnovelty and most striking feature to my eyes were the tree-ferns,which," after seven years spent in the tropics, I now saw in perfectionfor the first time. All I liad hitherto met with wereslender species, not more than twelve feet high, and they gavenot the least idea of the supreme beauty of trees l:)earing theirelegant heads of fronds more than thirty feet in the air, likethose which were plentifully scattered about this forest. Thereis nothing in tropical vegetation so perfectly beautiful.My boys shot five sorts of birds, none of which we hadobtained during a month's shooting in Wamma. Two werevery pretty flycatchers, already known from New Guinea ; oneof them (Monarcha chrysomela), of brilliant black and brightorange colours, is by some autliors considered to be the mostbeautiful of all flycatchers ;the other is pure white and velvetyblack, with a broad fleshy ring round the eye of an azure bluecolour ; it is named the " spectacled flycatcher " (Monarchatelescopthalma), and was first found in New Guinea, along Avitlithe otlier, by the French naturalists during the voyage of thediscovery-shipCoquUle.Feb. I8t/i.—Before leaving Macassar, I had written to theGovernor of Amboyna requesting him to assist me with thenative chiefs of Ai-u. I now received by a vessel which hadarrived from Amboyna a very polite answer, informing me thatorders had been sent to give me every assistance that I mightrequire ; and I was just congratulating myself on being at lengthable to get a boat and men to go to tlie mainland and explorethe interior, when a sudden clieck came in the form of a pii'aticalincursion. A small prau arrived which liad been attacked bypirates and had a man wounded. They were said to have fiveboats, but more were expected to be behind, and the traderswere all in consternation, fearing that their small vessels senttrading to the " blakang tana " would be plundered. The Arunati\es were of course dreadfully alarmed, as these maraudersattack their villages, burn and murder, and carry away women