1883. J MR. p. L. SCLATER ON BIRDS FROM TIMOR LAUT. 49 



on the sea-margin, where the dead are deposited. The terror of the 

 villagers, who did not dare to venture any distance from the gates, 

 and the bamboo-stakes distributed over the country, made collecting 

 a very difficult matter. Few would volunteer to act as guides ; and 

 my hunters, shooting unaccompanied, were often laid up with wounds 

 from the bamboo-spikes. 



" Our first concern was to get a house, the huts being so small that 

 to house our baggage or work in them was quite out of the question. 

 A site was obtained only after the most vexatious delay by purchasing 

 eight huts and removing them. At length, by the aid of a lavish 

 remuneration we were able to erect a new dwelling, which was not 

 finished till 17 days after our arrival." 



The succeeding portion of Mr. Forbes's report is mainly occupied 

 with anthropological matters ; but the following paragraphs contain 

 some general remarks upon the physical pecuharities of the Tenimber 

 group : — 



" The Tenimber Islands, as seen from the sea, are very low. There 

 are no hills ; nothing over 400 feet on the northern island nor on 

 the surrounding islets, with the exception of Laibobar on the west 

 coast of Yamdena, which rises to a height of about 1500 feet as seen 

 from Larat across the mainland. The Tenimber group is surrounded 

 (as I am told by the commander of H.B.M. ship ' Samarang') by a 

 very deep sea. The islands are entirely of coral- formation. On the 

 eastern shore of Yamdena there are coral cliffs of about 100 feet in 

 height, from which immense stalagmites hang down. Along the 

 beach are here and there blocks of tide-worn sandstone ; but no- 

 where have I been able to find any sedimentary rocks save on the 

 islet of Larat, near the village of Retabel, where, a few hundred feet 

 inland from the shore, a short cliff, some 50 feet in height running in 

 a N.W. and S.E. direction, exhibits a bed of stratified sandstone 

 between coral conglomerates. Its texture is close and fine, and it is 

 of a reddish-yellow colour. In the interior of Yamdena the coral 

 lies a few inches below the surface, being covered only by a verv thin 

 layer of dark mould. There are absolutely no traces of sedimentary 

 strata, with the exception of one small nodule of a fine calcareous 

 sandstone. Along the shore low coral cliffs alternate with sandy 

 baylets (the land is almost entirely of fine particles of coral and 

 minute shells and broken fragments of Echini &c.), which are studded 

 also with worn coral boulders. At the base of these cliffs, and in fact 

 all along the shore, the floor, as exhibited at low tide, is composed of 

 a black mud formed of disintegrated coral, vegetable refuse, small 

 shells, sand, and fine mud, lying on a broken-up mass of coral con- 

 crete. Very few corals are alive within the space left by the tides 

 or in the shallows near the margin. Here and there Madrepores 

 and Pirites. and Tubipora live on the undersides of the stones in the 

 pools, or where they will be but a short time left exposed. Sponges, 

 grey or dark brown or light yellow, like shootsof some young plants, 

 expose their oscula on every rough eminence ; while pale yellow or rich 

 green patches of Alcyonias give colour to the grey shore. 



"Among the Vertebrates only one Batrachian was found or seen. 

 Pkoc. Zool. Soc— 1883, No. IV. 4 



