Beetles Became Much More
Numerous, And Under A Thick Bed Of Leaves That Had Accumulated On
Some Rocks By The Side Of A Forest Stream, I Found An Abundance
Of Carbidae, A Family Generally Scarce In The Tropics.
The
butterflies, however, disappeared.
Two of my servants were attacked
with fever, dysentery, and swelled feet, just at the time that
the third had left me, and for some days they both lay groaning
in the house. When they got a little better I was attacked
myself, and as my stores were nearly finished and everything was
getting very damp, I was obliged to prepare for my return to
Macassar, especially as the strong westerly winds would render
the passage in a small open boat disagreeable, if not dangerous.
Since the rains began, numbers of huge millipedes, as thick as
one's finger and eight or ten inches long, crawled about
everywhere - in the paths, on trees, about the house - and one
morning when I got up I even found one in my bed! They were
generally of a dull lead colour or of a deep brick red, and were
very nasty-looking things to be coming everywhere in one's way,
although quite harmless. Snakes too began to show themselves. I
killed two of a very abundant species - big-headed, and of a bright
green colour, which lie coiled up on leaves and shrubs and can
scarcely be seen until one is close upon them. Brown snakes got
into my net while beating among dead leaves for insects, and made
me rather cautious about inserting my hand until I knew what kind
of game I had captured.
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