xxiij CELEBES, THE MOLUCCAS, ETC. 375 



geographical and physical changes on which the present 

 insect-distribution depends. 1 . . . 



"Ina day or two I leave for Timor, where, if I am lucky 

 in finding a good locality, I expect some fine and interesting 

 insects." 



I reached Delli, the chief place in the Portuguese part of 

 the island, on January 12, 1861, and stayed there about three 

 months and a half. I lived with an Englishman, Captain Hart, 

 who had a coffee plantation about a mile out of the town ; 

 and there was also another Englishman, Mr. Geach, a mining 

 engineer, who had come out to open copper mines for the 

 Portuguese Government, but as no copper ore could be found, 

 he was waiting for an opportunity to return to Singapore. 

 They were both very pleasant people, and I enjoyed myself 

 while there, though the collecting was but poor, owing to the 

 excessive aridity of the climate and the absence of forests. I 

 obtained, however, some rare birds and a few very rare and 

 beautiful butterflies by the side of a stream in a little rocky 

 valley shaded by a few fine trees and bushes. Of beetles, 

 however, there were absolutely none worth collecting. 



Leaving Timor at the end of April, I went by the Dutch 

 mail steamer to Cajeli in Bouru, the last of the Molucca 

 Islands which I visited. Here I stayed two months, but was 

 again disappointed, since the country was almost as unpro- 

 ductive as Ceram. For miles round the town there were 

 only low hills covered with coarse grass and scattered trees, 

 less productive of insects than a bare moor in England. Some 

 patches of wood here and there and the fruit trees around 

 the town produced a few birds of peculiar species. I went to 

 a place about twenty miles off, where there was some forest, 

 and remained there most of my time ; but insects were still 

 very scarce, and birds almost equally so. I obtained, how- 

 ever, about a dozen quite new species of birds and others 

 which were very rare, together with a small collection of 

 beetles ; and then, about the end of June, took the mail 



1 These ideas were thoroughly worked out in my book on " The Geographical 

 Distribution of Animals," published in 1876. 



