486 The Aru Islands. 



this line from June to December is generally fine, and often 

 very dry, the rest of the year being the wet season. East 

 of it the weather is exceedingly uncertain, each island, and 

 each side of an island, having its own peculiarities. The dif- 

 ference seems to consist not so much in the distribution of 

 the rainfall as in that of the clouds and the moistness of the 

 atmosphere. In Aru, for example, when we left, the little 

 streams were all dried up, although the weather was gloomy ; 

 while in January, February, and March, when we had the 

 hottest sunshine and the finest days, they were always flow- 

 ing. The dryest time of all the year in Aru occurs in Sep- 

 tember and October, just as it does in Java and Celebes. 

 The rainy seasons agree, therefore, with those of the western 

 islands, although the weather is very different. The Moluc- 

 ca sea is of a very deep blue color, quite distinct from the 

 clear light blue of the Atlantic. In cloudy and dull weather 

 it looks absolutely black, and when crested with foam has a 

 stern and angry aspect. The -wind continued fair and strong 

 during our whole voyage, and we reached Macassar in per- 

 fect safety on the evening of the 11th of July, having made 

 the passage from Aru (more than a thousand miles) in nine 

 and a half days. 



My expedition to the Aru Islands had been eminently 

 successful. Although I had been for months confined to the 

 house by illness, and had lost much time by the want of the 

 means of locomotion, and by missing the right season at the 

 right place, I brought away with me more than nine thou- 

 sand specimens of natural objects, of about sixteen hundred 

 distinct species. I had made the acquaintance of a strange 

 and little-known race of men ; I had become familiar with the 

 traders of the far East ; I had revelled in the delights of ex- 

 ploring a new fauna and flora, one of the most remarkable and 

 most beautiful and least-known in the world ; and I had suc- 

 ceeded in the main object for which I had undertaken the 

 journey — namely, to obtain fine specimens of the magnificent 

 birds of paradise, and to be enabled to observe them in their 

 native forests. By this success I was stimulated to continue 

 my researches in the Moluccas and New Guinea for nearly 

 five years longer, and it is still the portion of my travels to 

 which I look back with the most complete satisfaction. 



