529 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



" When a traveller returneth home," says Bacon, " let 

 him not leave the countries where he hath travelled alto- 

 gether behind him." Acting up to this excellent advice, 

 I have, in the preceding Journal, written at the time, and 

 generally on the spot, thrown together notes on the habits 

 of various animals, and a few ethnographical and physical 

 remarks on the inhabitants of the countries visited during 

 the expedition of the Samarang ; and with these I have 

 interspersed, here and there, desultory botanical observa- 

 tions, and short descriptions of natural scenery. Being 

 but an amateur Naturalist, and not extensively ac- 

 quainted with the bibliography of Zoological science, I 

 have seldom ventured to give more than the name of the 

 generic group to which the animals I have alluded to, 

 respectively belong. The scientific results of the voyage 

 will be brought before the public in the " Zoology of 

 the Samarang," now preparing for publication. 



The researches of various nations in the Indian Archipe- 

 lago, and among the islands of the Chinese Seas, instituted 

 by the wise liberality of European governments, or sug- 

 gested by the pious zeal of philanthropic men, have been 

 gradually revealing numerous interesting and important 

 phenomena in the history of that comparatively unknown 

 world. The wonderful and mysterious forms of animal 

 and vegetable life that enliven those ocean-gardens, and 

 the physical and social peculiarities of the various tribes 

 that inhabit them, are daily becoming more familiar to 



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