The Banks Of The Stream Formed My Best Collecting-Ground, And I
Daily Wandered Up And Down Its Shady Bed, Which About A Mile Up Became
Rocky And Precipitous.
Here I obtained the rare and beautiful swallow-
tail butterflies, Papilio aenomaus and P. liris; the males of which
Are quite unlike each other, and belong in fact to distinct sections
of the genus, while the females are so much alike that they are
undistinguishable on the wing, and to an uneducated eye equally so in
the cabinet. Several other beautiful butterflies rewarded my search in
this place, among which I may especially mention the Cethosia
leschenaultii, whose wings of the deepest purple are bordered with
buff in such a manner as to resemble at first sight our own Camberwell
beauty, although it belongs to a different genus. 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.
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