siv.] THE PEARL FISHERY 341 



Ai'us. We had no time to devote to real work in the islands ; two 

 or three of our men were suffering considerably from fever and 

 other tropical disorders ; and it was therefore settled that we 

 should commence our homeward voyage in a week's time. Mean- 

 while we sent a prau with our two remaining hunters to Wanumbai, 

 a village to the south of "Wokan, with instructions to shoot and 

 collect what they could. 



The eastern shores of the Aru group — the diUakang tana or 

 " back country," as it is called in Malay — form the chief locality 

 for the pearl-fisheries, an important industry of the islands. They 

 are unsurveyed, and unvisited by European vessels, few of which 

 indeed come even to Dobbo. ]\Iany praus were away fishing at the 

 time of our \dsit, and as we were anxious to learn the whereabouts 

 of the fleet, and if possible to obtain some pearls, we despatched a 

 canoe to Batulei, a little island on the north-east side, for informa- 

 tion. In Dobbo there were no pearls for sale. Those we had seen 

 at Macassar from these fisheries were for the most part small and 

 not of very good colour, but some were of a beautiful deep bronze 

 shade. 



It rained heavily and often during our \dsit, and we understood 

 the reason why advantage was taken by the Dobbo people of 

 every sunny day to expose their goods on mats before their doors. 

 It was tantalising to see the skins of the Paradise birds thus 

 drying, then- golden plumes glittering in the sun, and to reflect that 

 we should have to be satisfied with buying them. From the accounts 

 we received it seems that this bird (P. ajgodcC) is decreasing in 

 numbers in the Arus, or at any rate in the northern islands. 

 The '■' play trees," on which the gi-eater number of them are shot, 

 are known over a wide extent of country, and each belongs to the 

 native who has discovered it. The claim to the tree having once 

 been established by the mark of the finder, his rights are duly 

 respected, and all poaching is by general agreement avoided. The 

 market price of the hurong mati has risen considerably of late 

 years, and while Mr. Wallace, in 1857, paid as little as sixpence 



