Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
hill near its foot a patch of forest had been cleared away, and several rude houses erected, in
which were residing Mr. Coulson the engineer, and a number of Chinese workmen. I was at
first kindly accommodated in Mr. Coulson's house, but finding the spot very suitable for me
and offering great facilities for collecting, I had a small house of two rooms and a verandah
built for myself. Here I remained nearly nine months, and made an immense collection of
insects, to which class of animals I devoted my chief attention, owing to the circumstances
being especially favourable.
In the tropics a large proportion of the insects of all orders, and especially of the large and
favourite group of beetles, are more or less dependent on vegetation, and particularly on
timber, bark, and leaves in various stages of decay. In the untouched virgin forest, the in-
sects which frequent such situations are scattered over an immense extent of country, at
spots where trees have fallen through decay and old age, or have succumbed to the fury of
the tempest; and twenty square miles of country may not contain so many fallen and de-
cayed trees as are to be found in any small clearing. The quantity and the variety of beetles
and of many other insects that can be collected at a given time in any tropical locality, will
depend, first upon the immediate vicinity of a great extent of virgin forest, and secondly
upon the quantity of trees that for some months past have been, and which are still being cut
down, and left to dry and decay upon the ground. Now, during my whole twelve years' col-
lecting in the western and eastern tropics, I never enjoyed such advantages in this respect as
at the Simunjon coal-works. For several months from twenty to fifty Chinamen and Dyaks
were employed almost exclusively in clearing a large space in the forest, and in making a
wide opening for a railroad to the Sadong River, two miles distant. Besides this, sawpits
were established at various points in the jungle, and large trees were felled to be cut up into
beams and planks. For hundreds of miles in every direction a magnificent forest extended
over plain and mountain, rock and morass, and I arrived at the spot just as the rains began to
diminish and the daily sunshine to increase; a time which I have always found the most fa-
vourable season for collecting. The number of openings and sunny places and of pathways,
were also an attraction to wasps and butterflies; and by paying a cent each for all insects that
were brought me, I obtained from the Dyaks and the Chinamen many fine locusts and Phas-
midæ, as well as numbers of handsome beetles.
