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. I was informed, however, that the small red species,
the "King Bird of Paradise," retains its plumage at all seasons,
and this I might therefore hope to get.
As I became familiar with the forest scenery of the island,
(perceived it to possess some characteristic features that
distinguished it from that of Borneo and Malacca, while, what is
very singular and interesting, it recalled to my mind the half-
forgotten impressions of the forests of Equatorial America. For
example, the palms were much more abundant than I had generally
found them in the East, more generally mingled with the other
vegetation, more varied in form and aspect, and presenting some
of those lofty and majestic smooth-stemmed, pinnate-leaved
species which recall the Uauassu (Attalea speciosa) of the
Amazon, but which I had hitherto rarely met with in the Malayan
islands.
In animal life the immense number and variety of spiders and of
lizards were circumstances that recalled the prolific regions of
south America, more especially the abundance and varied colours
of the little jumping spiders which abound on flowers and
foliage, and are often perfect gems of beauty. The web-spinning
species were also more numerous than I had ever seen them, and
were a great annoyance, stretching their nets across the
footpaths just about the height of my face; and the threads
composing these are so strong and glutinous as to require much
trouble to free oneself from them. Then their inhabitants, great
yellow-spotted monsters with bodies two inches long, and legs in
proportion, are not pleasant to o run one's nose against while
pursuing some gorgeous butterfly, or gazing aloft in search of
some strange-voiced bird. I soon found it necessary not only to
brush away the web, but also to destroy the spinner; for at
first, having cleared the path one day, I found the next morning
that the industrious insects had spread their nets again in the
very same places.
The lizards were equally striking by their numbers, variety, and
the situations in which they were found. The beautiful blue-
tailed species so abundant in Ke was not seen here. The Aru
lizards are more varied but more sombre in their colours - shades
of green, grey, brown, and even black, being very frequently
seen. Every shrub and herbaceous plant was alive with them, every
rotten trunk or dead branch served as a station for some of these
active little insect-hunters, who, I fear, to satisfy their gross
appetites, destroy many gems of the insect world, which would
feast the eyes and delight the heart of our more discriminating
entomologists. Another curious feature of the jungle here was the
multitude of sea-shells everywhere met with on the ground and
high up on the branches and foliage, all inhabited by hermit-
crabs, who forsake the beach to wander in the forest. I lave
actually seen a spider carrying away a good-sized shell and
devouring its (probably juvenile) tenant. On the beach, which I
had to walls along every morning to reach the forest, these
creatures swarmed by thousands. Every dead shell, from the
largest to the most minute, was appropriated by them. They formed
small social parties of ten or twenty around bits of stick or
seaweed, but dispersed hurriedly at the sound of approaching
footsteps. After a windy night, that nasty-looking Chinese
delicacy the sea-slug was sometimes thrown up on the beach, which
was at such times thickly strewn with some of the most beautiful
shells that adorn our cabinets, along with fragments and masses
of coral and strange sponges, of which I picked up more than
twenty different sorts. In many cases sponge and coral are so
much alike that it is only on touching them that they can be
distinguished. Quantities of seaweed, too, are thrown up; but
strange as it may seem, these are far less beautiful and less
varied than may be found on any favourable part of our own
coasts.
The natives here, even those who seem to be of pare Papuan race,
were much more reserved and taciturn than those of Ke. This is
probably because I only saw them as yet among strangers and in
small parties, One must see the savage at home to know what he
really is. Even here, however, the Papuan character sometimes
breaks out. Little boys sing cheerfully as they walk along, or
talk aloud to themselves (quite a negro characteristic); and try
all they can, the men cannot conceal their emotions in the true
Malay fashion. A number of them were one day in my house, and
having a fancy to try what sort of eating tripang would be, I
bought a couple, paying for them with such an extravagant
quantity of tobacco that the seller saw I was a green customer.
He could not, however, conceal his delight, but as he smelt the
fragrant weed, and exhibited the large handful to his companions,
he grinned and twisted and gave silent chuckles in a most
expressive pantomime.
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