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. This extraordinary insect
is rarely or never captured except when it comes to drink the sap
of the sugar palms, where it is found by the natives when they go
early in the morning to take away the bamboos which have been
filled during the night. For some time one or two were brought me
every day, generally alive. They are sluggish insects, and pull
themselves lazily along by means of their immense forelegs. A
figure of this and other Moluccan beetles is given in the 27th
chapter of this work.
I was kept at Paso by an inflammatory eruption, brought on by the
constant attacks of small acari-like harvest-bugs, for which the
forests of Ceram are famous, and also by the want of nourishing
food while in that island.
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