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

26 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chai-.try and shoot one for me, he told me that although he had beenfor twenty years shooting birds in these forests he had neveryet shot one, and had never even seen one except after it hadbeen caught. The bird is so exceedingly shy and wary, andruns along the ground in the densest parts of the forest soquickly, that it is impossible to get near it ; and its sobercolours and rich eye-like si~)ots, which are so ornamental whenseen in a museum, must harmonize well with the dead leavesamong which it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous. Allthe .specimens sold in Malacca are caught in snares, and myinformant, though he had shot none, had snared plenty.Tlie tiger and rhinoceros are still found here, and a fewyears ago elephants abounded, but they have lately all disappeared.We found some heaps of dung, which seemed to bethat of elephants, and some tracks of the rhinoceros, but sawnone of the animals. We, however, kept a fire up all night incase any of these creatures should visit us, and two of our mendeclared that they did one day see a rhinoceros. When our ricewas finished, and our boxes full of specimens, we returned toAyer-panas, and a few days afterwards went on to Malacca,and thence to Singapore. Mount Ophir has quite a reputationfor fevei", and all our friends were astonished at our I'ecklessnessin staying so long at its foot ; but we none of us suffered in theleast, and I shall ever look back with pleasure to my trip, asbeing my first introduction to mountain scenery in the Easterntropics.The meagreness and brevity of the sketch I have here givenof my visit to Singapore and the Malay Peninsula is due to myhaving trusted chiefly to some private letters and a note-book,w^hich were lost ; and to a paper on Malacca and Mount Ophirwhich was sent to the Royal Geographical Society, but whichwas neither read nor printed, owing to pi^ess of matter at theend of a session, and the MSS. of which cannot now be found.I the less regret this, however, as so many works have beenwritten on these parts ; and I always intended to pass lightlyover my travels in the western and better known portions ofthe ArchiiDelago, in order to devote more space to the remoterdistricts, about which hardly anything has been wi'itten in theEnglish language.CHAPTER IV.BORNEO—THE ORANG-UTAN.I ARRIVED at Sarawak on November 1st, 1854, and left it onJanuary 25th, 1856. In the interval I resided at many diflferentlocalities, and saw a good deal of the Dyak tribes as well as ofthe Bornean ^Malays. I vvas hospitably entertained by Sir