The Most Striking
Proof Of Such A Junction Is, That The Great Mammalia Of Java, The
Rhinoceros, The Tiger, And The Banteng Or Wild Ox, Occur Also In
Siam And Burmah, And These Would Certainly Not Have Been
Introduced By Man.
The Javanese peacock and several other birds
are also common to these two countries; but, in the majority of
Cases, the species are distinct, though closely allied,
indicating that a considerable time (required for such
modification) has elapsed since the separation, while it has not
been so long as to cause an entire change. Now this exactly
corresponds with the time we should require since the temperate
forms of plants entered Java. These are now almost distinct
species, but the changed conditions under which they are now
forced to exist, and the probability of some of them having since
died out on the continent of India, sufficiently accounts for the
Javanese species being different.
In my more special pursuits, I had very little success upon the
mountain - owing, perhaps, to the excessively unpropitious
weather and the shortness of my stay. At from 7,000 to 8,000 feet
elevation, I obtained one of almost lovely of the small Fruit
pigeons (Ptilonopus roseicollis), whose entire head and neck are
of an exquisite rosy pink colour, contrasting finely with its
otherwise blue plumage; and on the very summit, feeding on the
ground among the strawberries that have been planted there, I
obtained a dull-coloured thrush, with the form and habits of a
starling (Turdus fumidus). Insects were almost entirely absent,
owing no doubt to the extreme dampness, and I did not get a
single butterfly the whole trip; yet I feel sure that, during the
dry season, a week's residence on this mountain would well repay
the collector in every department of natural history.
After my return to Toego, I endeavoured to find another locality
to collect in, and removed to a coffee-plantation some miles to
the north, and tried in succession higher and lower stations on
the mountain; but, I never succeeded in obtaining insects in any
abundance and birds were far less plentiful than on the
Megamendong Mountan. The weather now became more rainy than ever,
and as the wet season seemed to have set in in earnest, I
returned to Batavia, packed up and sent off my collections, and
left by steamer on November 1st for Banca and Sumatra.
CHAPTER VIII.
SUMATRA.
(NOVEMBER 1861 to JANUARY 1862.)
The mail steamer from Batavia to Singapore took me to Muntok (or
as on English maps, "Minto"), the chief town and port of Banca.
Here I stayed a day or two, until I could obtain a boat to take me
across the straits, and all the river to Palembang. A few walks
into the country showed me that it was very hilly, and full of
granitic and laterite rocks, with a dry and stunted forest
vegetation; and I could find very few insects. A good-sized open
sailing-boat took me across to the mouth of the Palembang river
where, at a fishing village, a rowing-boat was hired to take me up
to Palembang - a distance of nearly a hundred miles by water.
Except when the wind was strong and favourable we could only
proceed with the tide, and the banks of the river were generally
flooded Nipa-swamps, so that the hours we were obliged to lay at
anchor passed very heavily.
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