I Cannot Deny, However, That
Dorey Was Very Rich In Ants.
One small black kind was excessively
abundant.
Almost every shrub and tree was more or less infested
with it, and its large papery nests were everywhere to be seen.
They immediately took possession of my house, building a large
nest in the roof, and forming papery tunnels down almost every
post. They swarmed on my table as I was at work setting out my
insects, carrying them off from under my very nose, and even
tearing them from the cards on which they were gummed if I left
them for an instant. They crawled continually over my hands and
face, got into my hair, and roamed at will over my whole body,
not producing much inconvenience till they began to bite, which
they would do on meeting with any obstruction to their passage,
and with a sharpness which made me jump again and rush to undress
and turn out the offender. They visited my bed also, so that
night brought no relief from their persecutions; and I verily
believe that during my three and a half months' residence at
Dorey I was never for a single hour entirely free from them. They
were not nearly so voracious as many other kinds, but their
numbers and ubiquity rendered it necessary to be constantly on
guard against them.
The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue-bottle
or blow-fly. These settled in swarms on my bird skins when first
put out to dry, filling their plumage with masses of eggs, which,
if neglected, the next day produced maggots. They would get under
the wings or under the body where it rested on the drying-board,
sometimes actually raising it up half an inch by the mass of eggs
deposited in a few hours; and every egg was so firmly glued to
the fibres of the feathers, as to make it a work of much time and
patience to get them off without injuring the bird. In no other
locality have I ever been troubled with such a plague as this.
On the 29th we left Dorey, and expected a quick voyage home, as
it was the time of year when we ought to have had steady
southerly and easterly winds. Instead of these, however, we had
calms and westerly breezes, and it was seventeen days before we
reached Ternate, a distance of five hundred miles only, which,
with average winds, could have been done in five days. It was a
great treat to me to find myself back again in my comfortable
house, enjoying milk to my tea and coffee, fresh bread and
butter, and fowl and fish daily for dinner. This New Guinea
voyage had used us all up, and I determined to stay and recruit
before I commenced any fresh expeditions. My succeeding journeys
to Gilolo and Batchian have already been narrated, and if; now
only remains for me to give an account of my residence in
Waigiou, the last Papuan territory I visited in search of Birds
of Paradise.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 153 of 213
Words from 79590 to 80105
of 111511
