THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



evening I take tea, write and read, but generally 

 in bed by nine."* 



I might quote similar details from Mr. Wallace's 

 letters, written while engaged in similar pursuits 

 in a neighbouring part of the same mighty conti- 

 nent. But I prefer citing, in illustration of our 

 subject, his observations made when, after having 

 satiated himself in the west, he turned to the 

 gorgeous east, and set himself to explore the 

 virgin treasures of the remotest parts of the In- 

 dian Archipelago. Who cannot sympathise with 

 his enthusiasm when he says: — "I look forward 

 with unmixed satisfaction to my visit to the rich 

 and almost unexplored Spice Islands— the land of 

 the lories, of the cockatoos and the birds of para- 

 dise, the country of tortoise-shell and pearls, of 

 beautiful shells and rare insects"? And when, 

 having visited them, and swept into his cabinet 

 their riches, his eye is still towards the rising sun, 

 and the gorgeous spoils of the unknown Papuan 

 group are firing his imagination, he thus jots 

 down his undefinable expectations — 



"I am going another thousand miles eastward 

 to the Arru Islands, which are within a hundred 

 miles of the coast of New Guinea, and are the 

 most eastern islands of the Archipelago. Many 

 reasons have induced me to go so far now. I 

 must go somewhere to escape the terrific rainy 

 season here. I have all along looked to visiting 

 Arru as one of the great objects of my journey to 

 the East; and almost all the trade with Arru is 

 from Macassar. I have an opportunity of going 

 in a proa, owned and commanded by a Dutch- 

 man, (Java-born,) who will take me and bring 

 me back, and assist me in getting a house. &c, 

 there; and he goes at the very time I want to 



* Zoologist, p. 5659. 



262 



