134 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



ketful after basketfiil of the species that I had al- 

 Avays regarded as the rarest and most valuable began 

 to appear, every native being anxious to dispose of his 

 lot before his fellows, and thus obtain a share of the 

 envied shining coin, which I was careful to display to 

 their gloating eyes before I should say I had bought 

 all I desired. Competition, here as elsewhere, had a 

 wonderfully depressing effect on the price of their com- 

 modities, judging from what they asked at first and 

 what they were finally willing to take. The trade, 

 however, became more brisk day after day, and some 

 natives came from long distances partly to sell their 

 shells and partly to see whether " that man " could be 

 sane who had come so far and was spending, accord- 

 ing to their ideas, so much money for shells. At first 

 I bought them by the ])asketful, until all the more 

 common species had been obtained, and then T showed 

 the natives the figures in Rumphius's " Rariteit Ka- 

 mer " of those species I still wished to secure, and at 

 the same time oifered them an extra price for others 

 not represented in that comprehensive work. One 

 species I was particularly anxious to secure alive. It 

 was the pearly nautilus. The shell has always been 

 common, but the animal has seldom been described. 

 The first was found at this place, and a description 

 and drawing were given by Rumphius. Afterward 

 a dissection and drawing were given by Professor 

 Owen, of the British Museum, and his monograph 

 probably contains the most complete anatomical de- 

 scription that has ever been made of any animal 

 from a single specimen. He worked, as he himself 

 described it to me, with a dissecting-knife in one hanrl 



