Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cending into the bowels of the mountain, and which, having visited several such, I had no
great curiosity to explore.
Crossing the stream a little below the upper fall, the path ascends a steep slope for about
five hundred feet, and passing through a gap enters a narrow valley, shut in by walls of rock
absolutely perpendicular and of great height. Half a mile further this valley turns abruptly to
the right, and becomes a mere rift in the mountain. This extends another half mile, the walls
gradually approaching till they are only two feet apart, and the bottom rising steeply to a
pass which leads probably into another valley, but which I had no time to explore. Returning
to where this rift had begun, the main path turns up to the left in a sort of gully, and reaches
a summit over which a fine natural arch of rock passes at a height of about fifty feet. Thence
was a steep descent through thick jungle with glimpses of precipices and distant rocky
mountains, probably leading into the main river valley again. This was a most tempting re-
gion to explore, but there were several reasons why I could go no further. I had no guide,
and no permission to enter the Bugis territories, and as the rains might at any time set in, I
might be prevented from returning by the flooding of the river. I therefore devoted myself
during the short time of my visit to obtaining what knowledge I could of the natural produc-
tions of the place.
The narrow chasms produced several fine insects quite new to me, and one new bird, the
curious Phlægenas tristigmata, a large ground pigeon with yellow breast and crown, and
purple neck. This rugged path is the highway from Máros to the Bugis country beyond the
mountains. During the rainy season it is quite impassable, the river filling its bed and rush-
ing between perpendicular cliffs many hundred feet high. Even at the time of my visit it was
most precipitous and fatiguing yet women and children came over it daily, and men carrying
heavy loads of palm sugar of very little value. It was along the path between the lower and
the upper falls, and about the margin of the upper pool, that I found most insects. The large
semi-transparent butterfly, Idea tondana, flew lazily along by dozens, and it was here that I
at length obtained an insect which I had hoped but hardly expected to meet with—the mag-
nificent Papilio androcles, one of the largest and rarest known swallow-tailed butterflies.
During my four days' stay at the falls I was so fortunate as to obtain six good specimens. As
this beautiful creature flies, the long white tails flicker like streamers, and when settled on
the beach it carries them raised upwards, as if to preserve them from injury. It is scarce even
here, as I did not see more than a dozen specimens in all, and had to follow many of them
up and down the river's bank repeatedly before I succeeded in their capture. When the sun
shone hottest about noon, the moist beach of the pool below the upper fall presented a beau-
tiful sight, being dotted with groups of gay butterflies,—orange, yellow, white, blue, and
