chap, ii.] TIGERS AND INSECT HUNTING. 3 7 



for a person unassisted to get out of one. Formerly a 

 sharp stake was stuck erect in the bottom ; but after an 

 unfortunate traveller had been killed by falling on one, 

 its use was forbidden. There are always a few tigers 

 roaming about Singapore, and they kill on an average a 

 Chinaman every day, principally those who work in the 

 gambir plantations, which are always made in newly- 

 cleared jungle. "We heard a tiger roar once or twice in 

 the evening, and it was rather nervous work hunting for 

 insects among the fallen trunks and old sawpits, when one 

 of these savage animals might be lurking close by, waiting 

 an opportunity to spring upon us. 



Several hours in the middle of every fine day were 

 spent in these patches of forest, which were delightfully 

 cool and shady by contrast with the bare open country 

 we had to walk over to reach them. The vegetation was 

 most luxuriant, comprising enormous forest trees, as well 

 as a variety of ferns, caladiums, and other undergrowth, 

 and abundance of climbing rattan palms. Insects were 

 exceedingly abundant and very interesting, and every day 

 furnished scores of new and curious forms. In about two 

 months I obtained no less than 700 species of beetles, a 

 large proportion of which were quite new, and among 

 them were 130 distinct kinds of the elegant Longicorns 

 (Cerambycidse), so much esteemed by collectors. Almost 

 all these were collected in one patch of jungle, not more 



