S4S 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May i, 1885. 



mischief ia doDe only at night, and, has been a cause 

 of much anxiety and expense, and though I have 

 employed night watchmen, charging them frequently 

 owing to the poor result of their vigilance, I could 

 not discover the depredator till a Sinhalese " yakko " 

 hit upon a successful plan. He made _ a roughly- 

 covered lamp attaching it to his head, inside this was 

 placed the paste of " kekuna " nuts which afforded 

 the light; with this " rum " fixture he dodged amongst 

 the cacao trees and the first night succeeded to my 

 great satisfaction, in shooting two large fat male 

 '• Kola-veddas." No doubt, they were attracted by 

 the light upon the man's head, and he being on the 

 qui vive, if he does not actually see the body of the 

 animal (for he chooses a dark night), he uotices their 

 glistening eyes watchiug him, lets drive and our 

 rapacious friend licks the dust. The body is about 

 16 to 18 inches long and tail about same length, hairy 

 and of a mouse colour, height about 9 inches and 

 weight 7 pounds. The head is fox-like.* For its size, 

 an ugly customer, with sharp teeth and claws, just 

 the sort of brute to do a wholesale aud retail business 

 in the cacao Hue. It tears off half of the lower por- 

 tion of the husk of the cacao pod and swallows the 

 seeds '-holus-bolus," afterwards leaving them as a 

 "santosam" on the rocks round about, the same as 

 monkey coftec. I op ned up the animals and found 

 them stuffed inside with cacao seeds ; no wonder they 

 grow fat and I thin ! What more evidence is wanted ? 

 An edict has gone forth. Death to the " Kola-vedda " 

 Slay and spare not ! I have suffered serious loss, 

 but now, knowing the enemy I have to deal with, I 

 feel that I am in a position to " confound their politics 

 and frustrate their knavish tricks." Bats also attack 

 the pods, making a small hole in the side of the 

 pod ; in this case the seeds are dropped quite colse to 

 the spot, but the loss arising from this cause is 

 trifling compared with the other. I think cacao is 

 favoured above other products with attacks from in- 

 sect and animal pests ; but, for a' that, and a' that, 

 it is a very interesting cultivation, and I h.»ve no 

 ioubt will prove a payiug oue in suitable situations, 

 f r it is by no means so cosmopolitan as our great 

 st aud4)y tea. 



The north-east monsoon is going out like a lion, 

 making up for lost tune no doubt. We can now 01 y: 

 " Hold, enough." The soil is thoroughly saturated and 

 all vegetation is flourishing. — Yours faithfully, • I. D. 



[In reference to our correspondent's difficulty, Mr. 

 W. H. Wright suggests the following means of catch- 

 ing the Paradoxurus : — "Have one good sized cage 

 rigged out in which you enclose and keep safely a 

 few fowls. Attached to this, or close to it have 

 another one made in which you put a sick fowl that 

 you mean to sacrifice. Leave the latter cage open at 

 night and your enemy will prowl round the fowls 

 till he gets at the victim and sucks its blood out. The 

 next night, or as soon as one fowl has been tasted, 

 leave in the expose 1 cage a trap, and you will be 

 sure to fiod the fellow caught in it before morning. 

 Continue the same experiment night after night, and 

 you will clear the place of the Paradoxurus," The 

 entrance to the fowl house might be a trap door.— Ed.] 



NORTH BORNEO (NEW CEYLON) AND THE 

 DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



Kandy, 8th April 18S5. 



Dear Sir, — As some of your readers have written 

 to me for information regarding gold in Borneo, 

 after perusing my memorandum on that precious 

 metal, which you were good enough to publish in 

 your paper, I trust you will not think I am tres- 

 passing on your good nature in asking you to publish 

 such of the information I now send you as you 

 think desirable. 



You will be glad to learn that our old friends 

 Messrs. Yon Douop and Callaghan are once more iu 

 New Ceylon, the one acting as Private Secretary 

 to Governor Treacher, and the other Assistant to the 

 Colonial Secretary, Mr. Malcolm Brown. — Yours truly, 



W. D. GIBBON. 



In. 



Lai 



ge 



iu some lights, throws off a few still darker shades or very 

 inconspicuous spots; no trace of dorsal streaks The tail 

 paler, with a rich golden-yellow subtormiual ring, which iu 

 the dried specimen has become partly albescent. 



Head and body ... •■■ 1 ft. H 



Tail ... - ». 1 5 



Head ... ••• - ° 1' 



Height at the shoulder ... / 



Stomach^! inches. Small intestines 7 lei t 1\ inches, 

 intestines Hi- inches. Cceeum 1J, pointed. 



If our recollection of the golden Paradosure in the Bri- 

 tish museum is correct, wedonot think our Ceylon animal 

 identical with it. The latter is a darker animal, and the 

 dorsal streaks are more evident oh U. Mr. Gray will Boon 

 lravo an opportunity of deciding, as we have seul to the 

 British Museum our best specimens 



The. golden Paradoxure app iai 

 animal" than the Palm eel {Vara II- 



habits are alike, nocturnal and arboreal. In 

 dividuals of the former species, e 



thestomach contained Oape gooseberries {Physalis Pern- 

 viand) which grow thcro now, in great abundance j and 

 only o'ue, had tho remains ot ter in the .-! 



When young they are tolerably docile, but as till 

 np their natural ferocity returns.— Ed. 



* "J. D." should send the skins to tho Colombo Mu- 

 s«ums (2). — Ed, 



{Extract from " North Borneo Herald" dated Slst Dec. 

 from article entitled "1884.") 



Iu the way of minerals the event of the year has been 

 the verification of the reports of the existence of "old 

 in the Scgama river district. On the last day of October. 

 Mr. H. Walker, Commissioner of Lauds, started on au 

 expedition iu the river with some Sarawak Malays who 

 had brought in a small quantity of gold to Sandakan. 

 He was only three days on the field but reports that 

 he searched at thirty or forty different places from near 

 its mouth (the Bilang river, a tributary of the Heganiai 

 " to a point two or three miles up the. river aud found 

 gold at nearly every trial , generally iu small distinct 

 specks, large enough to gather with the fingers, some- 

 times larger, river worn gold, and always in conjunction 

 with a black metallic dust and iron or copper pyrites. 

 The rocks met with were granite, gneiss, quartz, fel- 

 spar, basaltic limestone, jaspar, porphyries, red sand- 

 stone." We quote from Mr. Walker's report which is 

 before us It happened most fortunately that H. M, S. 

 " Pegasus" was ill harbour when Mr. Walker returned to 

 Sandakan, aud advantage was taken of the presence cm 

 board her of the Reverend Father Julian Teunisun 

 Woods, who has frequently been deputed by the Australian 

 Governments to make reports on geological matter's, and 

 tlm following opinion was given by him: " No. 1 snotty 

 alluvial gold with very little silver, apparently derived from 

 alluvia! deposits, and should say if the proper leads 

 were discovered would be very rich ; 1 should recom- 

 mend trying beds of shallow rivers andjsmall streams. 

 No. L' seems to contain a fair proportion of tin ore ; 

 mmiii.i recommend a trial smelting." 



The advent of the N. E, monsoon with rain and 

 heavy weather on the bar precludes further operations for 

 the next one or twomouths, after which doubtless the 

 11 itigatious wbi lie resumed, and, should tin, as well as 

 gold prove to be'in quantity, we -hall have a very dif 

 report to make on the country's progress this day 

 ; . ■ months. 



Nothing whatever is yet known as to the terms on which 

 the Company wilt allow tlmse minerals to he worked ; 

 whether they will keep them iu their own hands, lease 



