The Mactras And Ostreas In
Particular Struck Me By The Variety And Beauty Of Their Colours.
Shells Have Long Been An Object Of Traffic In Amboyna; Many Of
The Natives Get Their Living By Collecting And Cleaning Them, And
Almost Every Visitor Takes Away A Small Collection.
The result is
that many of the commoner-sorts have lost all value in the eyes
of the amateur,
Numbers of the handsome but very common cones,
cowries, and olives sold in the streets of London for a penny
each, being natives of the distant isle of Amboyna, where they
cannot be bought so cheaply. The fishes in the collection were
all well preserved in clear spirit in hundreds of glass jars, and
the shells were arranged in large shallow pith boxes lined with
paper, every specimen being fastened down with thread. I roughly
estimated that there were nearly a thousand different kinds of
shells, and perhaps ten thousand specimens, while the collection
of Amboyna fishes was nearly perfect.
On the 4th of January I left Amboyna for Ternate; but two years
later, in October 1859, I again visited it after my residence in
Menado, and stayed a month in the town in a small house which I
hired for the sake of assorting and packing up a large and varied
collection which I had brought with me from North Celebes,
Ternate, and Gilolo. I was obliged to do this because the mail
steamer would have come the following month by way of Amboyna to
Ternate, and I should have been delayed two months before I could
have reached the former place. I then paid my first visit to
Ceram, and on returning to prepare for my second more complete
exploration of that island, I stayed (much against my will) two
months at Paso, on the isthmus which connects the two portions of
the island of Amboyna. This village is situated on the eastern
side of the isthmus, on sandy ground, with a very pleasant view
over the sea to the island of Haruka. On the Amboyna side of the
isthmus there is a small river which has been continued by a
shallow canal to within thirty yards of high-water mark on the
other side. Across this small space, which is sandy and but
slightly elevated, all small boats and praus can be easily
dragged, and all the smaller traffic from Ceram and the islands
of Saparúa and Harúka, passes through Paso. The canal is not
continued quite through, merely because every spring-tide would
throw up just such a sand-bank as now exists.
I had been informed that the fine butterfly Ornithoptera priamus
was plentiful here, as well as the racquet-tailed kingfisher and
the ring-necked lory. I found, however, that I had missed the
time for the former: and birds of all kinds were very scarce,
although I obtained a few good ones, including one or two of the
above-mentioned rarities. I was much pleased to get here the fine
long-armed chafer, Euchirus longimanus.
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