Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
over with leaves, and the men sheltered themselves as they could till the storm was over, by
which time a flood came down the river, which effectually stopped our further march, even
had we wished to proceed. We then lighted fires; I made some coffee, and my men roasted
their fish and plantains, and as soon as it was dark, we made ourselves comfortable for the
night.
Starting at six the next morning, we had three hours of the same kind of walking, during
which we crossed the river at least thirty or forty times, the water being generally knee-
deep. This brought us to a place where the road left the stream, and here we stopped to
breakfast. We then had a long walk over the mountain, by a tolerable path, which reached an
elevation of about fifteen hundred feet above the sea. Here I noticed one of the smallest and
most elegant tree ferns I had ever seen, the stem being scarcely thicker than my thumb, yet
reaching a height of fifteen or twenty feet. I also caught a new butterfly of the genus Pieris,
and a magnificent female specimen of Papilio gambrisius, of which I had hitherto only
found the males, which are smaller and very different in colour. Descending the other side
of the ridge, by a very steep path, we reached another river at a spot which is about the
centre of the island, and which was to be our resting-place for two or three days. In a couple
of hours my men had built a little sleeping-shed for me, about eight feet by four, with a
bench of split poles, they themselves occupying two or three smaller ones, which had been
put up by former passengers.
The river here was about twenty yards wide, running over a pebbly and sometimes a
rocky bed, and bordered by steep hills with occasionally flat swampy spots between their
base and the stream. The whole country was one dense, unbroken, and very damp and
gloomy virgin forest. Just at our resting-place there was a little bush-covered island in the
middle of the channel, so that the opening in the forest made by the river was wider than
usual, and allowed a few gleams of sunshine to penetrate. Here there were several handsome
butterflies flying about, the finest of which, however, escaped me, and I never saw it again
during my stay. In the two days and a half which we remained here, I wandered almost all
day up and down the stream, searching after butterflies, of which I got, in all, fifty or sixty
specimens, with several species quite new to me. There were many others which I saw only
once, and did not capture, causing me to regret that there was no village in these interior val-
leys where I could stay a month. In the early part of each morning I went out with my gun in
search of birds, and two of my men were out almost all day after deer; but we were all
equally unsuccessful, getting absolutely nothing the whole time we were in the forest. The
only good bird seen was the fine Amboyna lory, but these were always too high to shoot;
besides this, the great Moluccan hornbill, which I did not want, was almost the only bird
