The Most Abundant
Butterflies Were The Whites And Yellows (Pieridae), Several Of Which I
Had Already Found At Lombock And At Coupang, While Others Were New To
Me.
Early in February we made arrangements to stay for a week at a village
called Baliba, situated about four miles off on the mountains, at an
elevation of 2,000 feet.
We took our baggage and a supply of all
necessaries on packhorses; and though the distance by the route we
took was not more than six or seven miles, we were half a day getting
there. The roads were mere tracks, sometimes up steep rocky stairs,
sometimes in narrow gullies worn by the horses' feet, and where it was
necessary to tuck up our legs on our horses' necks to avoid having
them crushed. At some of these places the baggage had to be unloaded,
at others it was knocked off. Sometimes the ascent or descent was so
steep that it was easier to walk than to cling to our ponies' backs;
and thus we went up and down over bare hills whose surface was
covered with small pebbles and scattered over with Eucalypti,
reminding me of what I had read of parts of the interior of Australia
rather than of the Malay Archipelago.
The village consisted of three houses only, with low walls raised a
few feet on posts, and very high roofs thatched with brass hanging
down to within two or three feet of the ground. A house which was
unfinished and partly open at the back was given for our use, and in
it we rigged up a table, some benches, and a screen, while an inner
enclosed portion served us for a sleeping apartment. We had a splendid
view down upon Delli and the sea beyond. The country around was
undulating and open, except in the hollows, where there were some
patches of forest, which Mr. Geach, who had been all over the eastern
part of Timor, assured me was the most luxuriant he had yet seen in
the island. I was in hopes of finding some insects here, but was much
disappointed, owing perhaps to the dampness of the climate; for it was
not until the sun was pretty high that the mists cleared away, and by
noon we were generally clouded up again, so that there was seldom more
than an hour or two of fitful sunshine. We searched in every direction
for birds and other game, but they were very scarce. On our
way I had shot the find white-headed pigeon, Ptilonopus cinctus, and
the pretty little lorikeet, Trichoglossus euteles. I got a few more of
these at the blossoms of the Eucalypti, and also the allied species
Trichoglossus iris, and a few other small but interesting birds. The
common jungle-cock of India (Gallus bankiva) was found here, and
furnished us with some excellent meals; but we could get no deer.
Potatoes are grown higher up the mountains in abundance, and are very
good.
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