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. We had a sheep killed every other day, and ate our mutton with
much appetite in the cool climate, which rendered a fire always
agreeable.
Although one-half the European residents in Delli are continually ill
from fever, and the Portuguese have occupied the place for three
centuries, no one has yet built a house on these fine hills, which, if
a tolerable road were made, would be only an hour's ride from the
town; and almost equally good situations might be found on a lower
level at half an hour's distance. The fact that potatoes and wheat of
excellent quality are grown in abundance at from 3,000 to 3,500 feet
elevation, shows what the climate and soil are capable of if properly
cultivated. From one to two thousand feet high, coffee would thrive;
and there are hundreds of square miles of country over which all the
varied products which require climates between those of coffee and
wheat would flourish; but no attempt has yet been made to form a
single mile of road, or a single acre of plantation!
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