Early Letters 



and how he governs. I look forward to spending a very 

 pleasant time at Sarawak. . . . 



Sir W. Hooker's remarks are encouraging, but I cannot 

 afford to collect plants. I have to work for a living, and 

 plants would not pay unless I collect nothing else, which 

 I cannot do, being too much interested in zoology. I 

 should like a botanical companion like Mr. Spruce very 

 much. We are anxiously expecting accounts of the taking 

 of Sebastopol. 



I am much obliged to Latham for quoting me, and hope 

 to see it soon. That ought to make my name a little known. 

 I have not your talent at making acquaintances, and find 

 Singapore very dull. I have not found a single companion. 

 I long for you to walk about with and observe the queer 

 things in the streets of Singapore. The Chinamen and their 

 ways are inexhaustibly amusing. My revolver is too heavy 

 for daily use. I wish I had had a small one. — Yours sin- 



^^^^ly> Alfred E. Wallace. 



To AN Unknown Correspondent' 



Si Munjon Coal Works ^ Borneo. May, 1855. 



One of the principal reasons which induced me to come 

 here was that it is the country of those most strange and 

 interesting animals, the orang-utans, or '^ mias '' of the 

 Dyaks. In the Sarawak district, though scarce twenty 

 miles distant, they are quite unknown, there being some 

 boundary line in this short space which, obeying the in- 

 explicable laws of distribution, they never pass. The 

 Dyaks distinguish three different kinds, which are known 

 in Europe by skulls or skeletons only, much confusion still 

 existing in their synonymy, and the external characters of 

 the adult animals being almost or quite unknown. I have 

 already been fortunate enough to shoot two young animals 



* This letter may have been written for pubUcation. 

 53 



