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

XXXIV.] NEW GUINEA.—DOREY. 389you have to brush thi'ough a rank vegetation, creep underfallen trees and si^iny creepers, and wade through pools of mudand mire, which cannot dry up because the sun is not allowedto penetrate. Their food is almost whollyroots and vegetables, with lish or game onlyas an occasional luxury, and they are consequently"sery subject to various skin diseases,the children esi^ecially being oftenmiserable-looking objects, blotched all overwith eruptions and sores. If these peopleare not savages, where shall we find any 1Yet they have all a decided love for the tinearts, and spend their leisure time in executingworks whose good taste and elegancewould often be admired in our schoolsof design !During the latter part of my stay in NewGuinea the weatlier was very wet, my onlyshooter was ill, and birds became scai'ce, sothat my only resource was insect-hunting.I worked very hard every hour of lineweather, and daily obtained a number ofnew species. Every dead ti'ee and fallenlog was searched and searched again ; andamong the dry and rotting leaves, whichstill hung on certain trees Avhich had beencut down, I found an abundant harvest ofminute Coleoptera. Although I neverafterwards found so many large and handsomebeetles as in Borneo, yet I obtainedhere a great variety of species. For thefirst two or three weeks, while I wassearching out the best localities, I tookabout 30 difierent kinds of beetles a day,besides about half that number of butterflies,and a few of the other orders. Butafterwards, up to the very la.st week, Iaveraged 49 species a day. On the 31 st ofMay, I took 78 distinct sorts, a larger numberthan I had ever cajDtured before, principallyobtained among dead trees andunder rotten bark. A good long walk ona fine day up the hill, and to the jilantationsof the natives, capturing everythingnot very common that came in my way,would produce about CO sjDecies ; but onthe last day of June I brought home noless than 95 distinct kinds of beetles, a larger number than Iever obtained in one day before or since. It was a fine hot day,and I devoted it to a search among dead leaves, beating foliage,