This System Works
Very Well, And I Believe Is At Present Far Better For The People
Than Free-Trade Would Be.
There are also large rice-fields, and
in this little village of seventy houses, I was informed that a
hundred pounds' worth of rice was sold annually.
I had a small house at the very end of the village, almost
hanging over the precipitous slope down to the stream, and with a
splendid view from the verandah. The thermometer in the morning
often stood at 62° and never rose so high as 80°, so that with
the thin clothing used in the tropical plains we were always cool
and sometimes positively cold, while the spout of water where I
went daily for my bath had quite an icy feel. Although I enjoyed
myself very much among these fine mountains and forests, I was
somewhat disappointed as to my collections. There was hardly any
perceptible difference between the animal life in this temperate
region and in the torrid plains below, and what difference did
exist was in most respects disadvantageous to me. There seemed to
be nothing absolutely peculiar to this elevation. Birds and
quadrupeds were less plentiful, but of the same species. In
insects there seemed to be more difference. The curious beetles
of the family Cleridae, which are found chiefly on bark and
rotten wood, were finer than I have seen them elsewhere. The
beautiful Longicorns were scarcer than usual, and the few
butterflies were all of tropical species.
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