It Is Curious To See The Baskets And Buckets
Used Here.
The cockles are brought in large volute shells,
probably the Cymbium ducale, while gigantic helmet-shells, a
species of Cassis, suspended by a rattan handle, form the vessels
in which fresh water is daily carried past my door.
It is painful
to a naturalist to see these splendid shells with their inner
whorls ruthlessly broken away to fit them for their ignoble use.
My collections, however, got on but slowly, owing to the
unexpectedly bad weather, violent winds with heavy showers having
been so continuous as only to give me four good collecting days
out of the first sixteen I spent here. Yet enough had been
collected to show me that with time and fine weather I might
expect to do something good. From the natives I obtained some
very fine insects and a few pretty land-shells; and of the small
number of birds yet shot more than half were known New Guinea
species, and therefore certainly rare in European collections,
while the remainder were probably new. In one respect my hopes
seemed doomed to be disappointed. I had anticipated the pleasure
of myself preparing fine specimens of the Birds of Paradise, but
I now learnt that they are all at this season out of plumage, and
that it is in September and October that they have the long
plumes of yellow silky feathers in full perfection. As all the
praus return in July, I should not be able to spend that season
in Aru without remaining another whole year, which was out of the
question.
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