THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 40 



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Basilan Island, Feb. 4th and 5th, 18?5. — The ship went for a 

 night to Port Isabella in Basilan Island, lying west of Zam- 

 boanga, to coal at the Spanish Government stores there. The 

 houses of the Moros at this place have already been referred to ; 

 the town was mostly in process of construction by families of 

 Bisayans moved from Zamboanga, and much of it was being 

 built on causeways and made ground constructed with coral 

 rock on tidal mud flats ; some families newly arrived were 

 camped on the sites of the houses they were building. 



Separated from Basilan Island by a narrow strait is the 

 very small island of Malamaui. This island is mostly covered 

 by a dense forest of lofty trees, many of which have the curious 

 vertically projecting plank-like roots which are so fully de- 

 scribed by Mr. Wallace in " Tropical Nature."* The natives 

 cut solid wheels for their Buffalo carts directly out of these 

 natural living planks ; and the large circular window-like holes 

 left in the roots at the bases of the trees are curious features in 

 the forest. 



I was constantly put on the alert by the rustling of what 

 sounded like some large animal amongst the dead leaves, and 

 expected every minute to get a shot at a deer, but at last found 

 that the animal disturbing the silence of the forest was a huge 

 Lizard (I believe Hydrosaums marmoratus), which bolted up 

 the trees when approached and sat in a fork. The forest was 

 full of these reptiles. 



I wished much to see the well-known aberrant flying In- 

 sectivorous mammal, Gcdeopithecus Philipi^nsis, which, like a 

 Flying Squirrel, has membranes of skin stretched between its legs 

 and out on to its tail ; so that, supported on this as by a parachute, 

 it skims through the air in its leaps from tree to tree with a partial 

 flight. I had no interpreter, but found a Bisayan native who 

 knew Spanish. I knew what " to-morrow morning early " was 

 in Spanish, and also what " I want to go and shoot Galeopi- 

 thecus " was in Malay. And to my great amusement I com- 

 bined these two so widely different languages in a sentence 

 with perfect success, " Manana por la manana saia mau purgi 



* A. E. Wallace, "Tropical Nature and other Essays," p. 31. London, 

 Macmillan, 1878. 



