436 The Aru Islands. 



that we can obtain with any regularity ai-e fish and cockles 

 of very good quality ; and to supply our daily wants it is ab- 

 solutely necessary to be always provided with four articles 

 — tobacco, knives, sago-cakes, and Dutch copper doits — be- 

 cause when the particular thing asked for is not forthcoming, 

 the fish pass on to the next house, and we may go that day 

 without a dinner. It is curious to see the baskets and buck- 

 ets used here. The cockles are brought in large volute 

 shells, jjrobably the Cymbium ducale, while gigantic helmet- 

 shells, a sjaecies 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 col- 

 lecting-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 cer- 

 tainly 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 

 learned 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 plu- 

 mage at all seasons, and this I might therefore hope to get. 



As I became familiar with the forest scenery of the island, 

 I 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 Amer- 



