The Natives Then Remove To Houses Near The Sources Of
The Small Streams, Where, In The Shady Depths Of The Forest, A
Small Quantity Of Water Still Remains.
Even then many of them
have to go miles for their water, which they keep in large
bamboos and use very sparingly.
They assure me that they catch
and kill game of all kinds, by watching at the water holes or
setting snares around them. That would be the time for me to make
my collections; but the want of water would be a terrible
annoyance, and the impossibility of getting away before another
whole year had passed made it out of the question.
Ever since leaving Dobbo I had suffered terribly from insects,
who seemed here bent upon revenging my long-continued persecution
of their race. At our first stopping-place sand-flies were very
abundant at night, penetrating to every part of the body, and
producing a more lasting irritation than mosquitoes. My feet and
ankles especially suffered, and were completely covered with
little red swollen specks, which tormented me horribly. On
arriving here we were delighted to find the house free from sand-
flies or mosquitoes, but in the plantations where my daily walks
led me, the day-biting mosquitoes swarmed, and seemed especially
to delight in attaching my poor feet. After a month's incessant
punishment, those useful members rebelled against such treatment
and broke into open insurrection, throwing out numerous inflamed
ulcers, which were very painful, and stopped me from walking. So
I found myself confined to the house, and with no immediate
prospect of leaving it. Wounds or sores in the feet are
especially difficult to heal in hot climates, and I therefore
dreaded them more than any other illness. The confinement was
very annoying, as the fine hot weather was excellent for insects,
of which I had every promise of obtaining a fine collection; and
it is only by daily and unremitting search that the smaller
kinds, and the rarer and more interesting specimens, can be
obtained. When I crawled down to the river-side to bathe, I often
saw the blue-winged Papilio ulysses, or some other equally rare
and beautiful insect; but there was nothing for it but patience,
and to return quietly to my bird-skinning, or whatever other work
I had indoors. The stings and bites and ceaseless irritation
caused by these pests of the tropical forests, would be borne
uncomplainingly; but to be kept prisoner by them in so rich and
unexplored a country where rare and beautiful creatures are to be
met with in every forest ramble - a country reached by such a long
and tedious voyage, and which might not in the present century be
again visited for the same purpose - is a punishment too severe
for a naturalist to pass over in silence.
I had, however, some consolation in the birds my boys brought
home daily, more especially the Paradiseas, which they at length
obtained in full plumage.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 117 of 213
Words from 60626 to 61125
of 111511
