It Is The Same Species That Is Found All
Over The Forests Of Celebes, And As None Of The Other
Mammalia of
that island extend into Batchian I am inclined to suppose that
this species has been accidentally introduced by
The roaming
Malays, who often carry about with them tame monkeys and other
animals. This is rendered more probable by the fact that the
animal is not found in Gilolo, which is only separated from
Batchian by a very narrow strait. The introduction may have been
very recent, as in a fertile and unoccupied island such an animal
would multiply rapidly. The only other mammals obtained were an
Eastern opossum, which Dr. Gray has described as Cuscus ornatus;
the little flying opossum, Belideus ariel; a Civet cat, Viverra
zebetha; and nice species of bats, most of the smaller ones being
caught in the dusk with my butterfly net as they flew about
before the house.
After much delay, owing to bad weather and the illness of one of
my men, I determined to visit Kasserota (formerly the chief
village), situated up a small stream, on an island close to the
north coast of Batchian; where I was told that many rare birds
were found. After my boat was loaded and everything ready, three
days of heavy squalls prevented our starting, and it was not till
the 21st of March that we got away. Early next morning we entered
the little river, and in about an hour we reached the Sultan's
house, which I had obtained permission to use. It was situated on
the bank of the river, and surrounded by a forest of fruit trees,
among which were some of the very loftiest and most graceful
cocoa-nut palms I have ever seen. It rained nearly all that day,
and I could do little but unload and unpack. Towards the
afternoon it cleared up, and I attempted to explore in various
directions, but found to my disgust that the only path was a
perfect mud swamp, along which it was almost impossible to walk,
and the surrounding forest so damp and dark as to promise little
in the way of insects. I found too on inquiry that the people
here made no clearings, living entirely on sago, fruit, fish, and
game; and the path only led to- a steep rocky mountain equally
impracticable and unproductive. The next day I sent my men to
this hill, hoping it might produce some good birds; but they
returned with only two common species, and I myself had been able
to get nothing; every little track I had attempted to follow
leading to a dense sago swamp. I saw that I should waste time by
staying here, and determined to leave the following day.
This is one of those spots so hard for the European naturalist to
conceive, where with all the riches of a tropical vegetation, and
partly perhaps from the very luxuriance of that vegetation,
insects are as scarce as in the most barren parts of Europe, and
hardly more conspicuous. In temperate climates there is a
tolerable uniformity in the distribution of insects over those
parts of a country in which there is a similarity in the
vegetation, any deficiency being easily accounted for by the
absence of wood or uniformity of surface. The traveller hastily
passing through such a country can at once pick out a collecting
ground which will afford him a fair notion of its entomology.
Here the case is different. There are certain requisites of a
good collecting ground which can only be ascertained to exist by
some days' search in the vicinity of each village. In some places
there is no virgin forest, as at Djilolo and Sahoe; in others
there are no open pathways or clearings, as here. At Batchian
there are only two tolerable collecting places, - the road to the
coal mines, and the new clearings made by the Tomóre people, the
latter being by far the most productive. I believe the fact to be
that insects are pretty uniformly distributed over these
countries (where the forests have not been cleared away), and are
so scarce in any one spot that searching for them is almost
useless. If the forest is all cleared away, almost all the
insects disappear with it; but when small clearings and paths are
made, the fallen trees in various stages of drying and decay, the
rotting leaves, the loosening bark and the fungoid growths upon
it, together with the flowers that appear in much greater
abundance where the light is admitted, are so many attractions to
the insects for miles around, and cause a wonderful accumulation
of species and individuals. When the entomologist can discover
such a spot, he does more in a mouth than he could possibly do by
a year's search in the depths of the undisturbed forest.
The next morning we left early, and reached the mouth of the
little river in about au hour. It flows through a perfectly flat
alluvial plain, but there are hills which approach it near the
mouth. Towards the lower part, in a swamp where the salt-water
must enter at high tides, were a number of elegant tree-ferns
from eight to fifteen feet high. These are generally considered
to be mountain plants, and rarely to occur on the equator at an
elevation of less than one or two thousand feet. In Borneo, in
the Aru Islands, and on the banks of the Amazon, I have observed
them at the level of the sea, and think it probable that the
altitude supposed to be requisite for them may have been deduced
from facts observed in countries where the plains and lowlands
are largely cultivated, and most of the indigenous vegetation
destroyed. Such is the case in most parts of Java, India,
Jamaica, and Brazil, where the vegetation of the tropics has been
most fully explored.
Coming out to sea we turned northwards, and in about two hours'
sail reached a few huts, called Langundi, where some Galela men
had established themselves as collectors of gum-dammar, with
which they made torches for the supply of the Ternate market.
About a hundred yards back rises a rather steep hill, and a short
walk having shown me that there was a tolerable path up it, I
determined to stay here for a few days.
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