58 [March, 



town contrasts very unfavourably in its general aspect with the 

 perfect Dutch neatness and cleanliness of Amboyna and Ternate, 

 where not even a dead leaf is allowed to encumber the streets ; here 

 they are full of mud puddles and accumulations of dirt of various 

 kinds, and swarm with dogs, fowls, and gaunt pigs, while evil smells 

 are encountered at every turn. Nearly all the native houses, which 

 are built neatly enough of palm leaf and bamboo, are perched up on 

 posts about six feet above the ground, the space beneath being used 

 for various kinds of lumber. All round the town are extensive paddy 

 (rice) fields, at this time just coming into ear, and presenting a 

 beautifully verdant appearance ; a wide fringe of coco-nut plantations 

 extends along the shore line, while banana groves, clumps of fruit 

 trees, and occasional waste patches, afford a sufficient variety of col- 

 lecting ground. There is some difficulty, however, in getting about, 

 a great deal of the ground being enclosed with close bamboo fences, 

 and the town straggles over a very large extent ; while those ugly and 

 vicious, though useful brutes, the water-buffaloes, are very numerous, 

 every mud-hole and little pond being occupied by one or more, and it 

 is as well always to give them as wide a berth as is convenient. The 

 natives are a very civil and well-disposed people, whose chief occupation 

 in life appears to be cock fighting. 



About four miles from the town, or rather from the landing place, 

 the country rises gradually into a range of very steep and rugged 

 hills sufficiently well clothed with forest, and a fine and very rapid 

 stream, which flows through the middle of the town, affords a con^ 

 venient means of access to them by following up its rocky bed, after 

 leaving the road at the foot of the hills. I spent the day here (on 

 November 30th) witb very fair success, the most conspicuous feature 

 in the insect life of this locality being the abundance of two species 

 of PieridcB {Ap^ias), one white, the other a beautiful reddish-orange 

 butterfly allied to the widely distributed A. Nero ; these were congre- 

 g.ated by hundreds on damp sandy spots on the margin of the stream, 

 along with numerous small "blues" (but very few other butterflies), 

 looking at a little distance like beds of crocuses, and when disturbed, 

 rising in the air in a perfect cloud. All books of tropical travel speak 

 of these assemblages of butterflies, but it was the first time in my 

 experience of collecting that I had witnessed this pretty sight to 

 perfection. In shady places a magnificent Papilio (which Tthink may 

 be P. Emathion), most gorgeously marked on the under-surface with 

 bright crimson on a ground of deep black, was often seen, but rarely 

 in good order, and by no means easy to catch, while a black and white 



