488 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



corals by the boat load. Major Studer, our worthy consul, cave me 

 a large room in the lower part of his house, and the use of a cool, 

 shady court, where I bought, assorted, and packed several hundred 

 specimens of coral of twenty-six species, and more shells than I 

 could spare time to catalogue. 



My friend Syers sent me a very nice collection of Selangore 

 mammals, skins and skeletons, and snakes in alcohol, all of which 

 he had gathered since my visit there. It is a pity that such an 

 ardent hunter and dead shot with a rifle could not have his hnes of 

 duty cast in such a country as Southern India, which, in places, 

 actually teems with noble game. Mr. Syers and I planned an ex- 

 pedition to the Animallais for some future year, with Theobald for 

 a companion in the chase, and when we do actually start on the 

 war-path in that direction some of the big game animals had better 

 get their lives insured against accidents. 



My jolly friend Hood, of the Rainbow, put in an appearance 

 during my last days in Singapore, but I felt so down-in-the-mouth 

 at not having suflScient funds left to get me to and through Aus- 

 tralia, that I was but sorry company, I know. It was fated that I 

 should not see Australia ; for a hunting and collecting trip cannot, 

 like the brook, " go on forever." 



Foreseeing that I should have to cross the Pacific in winter, I 

 determined to spare my two baby orangs the miseries of such a 

 voyage, and, after having the Old Man sit for his photograph, I 

 sent them both, under the guardianship of Mr. Vandevorst, to 

 Madras, as a present to my kind friend Theobald. I could not 

 have given him anything that pleased him better. He made a jour- 

 ney of three hundred and fifty miles to meet them ; and they re- 

 ceived him with open arms. Both wei'e presented at court before 

 they left Madras, and I hear were very much complimented on 

 their deportment and good looks. 



Early in February I turned my face homeward, by way of China 

 and Japan, and reached Rochester safe and well, just two years and 

 nine months from the time of my departure. From first to last I 

 had been remarkably prospered, quite as if the prayers and good 

 wishes of my friends had enlisted the services of a special guardian 

 angel to accompany me at every step, in addition to the one I left 

 behind me, whose charming missives of news, hopeful encourage- 

 ment and unfaltering affection followed me everywhere — one by 

 every mail, without a single break —without which I would have 

 been lonesome indeed. No joui-ney could have been more free 



