38 SINGAPORE. [chap. ii. 



than a square mile in extent, and in all my subsequent 

 travels in the East I rarely if ever met with so productive 

 a spot. This exceeding productiveness was due in part no 

 doubt to some favourable conditions in the soil, climate, 

 and vegetation, and to the season being very bright and 

 sunny, with sufficient showers to keep everything fresh. 

 But it was also in a great measure dependent, I feel sure, 

 on the labours of the Chinese wood-cutters. They had 

 been at work here for several years, and during all that 

 time had furnished a continual supply of dry and dead and 

 decaying leaves and bark, together with abundance of 

 wood and sawdust, for the nourishment of insects and 

 their larvae. This had led to the assemblage of a great 

 variety of species in a limited space, and I was the first 

 naturalist who had come to reap the harvest they had 

 prepared. In the same place, and during my walks in 

 other directions, I obtained a fair collection of butter- 

 flies and of other orders of insects, so that on the whole 

 I was quite satisfied with these my first attempts to 

 gain a knowledge of the Natural History of the Malay 

 Archipelago. 



