56 BORNEO. [chap. iv. 



patch of forest had been cleared away, and several rude 

 houses erected, in which were residing Mr. Coulson the 

 engineer, and a number of Chinese workmen. I was at 

 first kindly accommodated in Mr. Coulson's house, but 

 finding the spot very suitable for me and offering great 

 facilities for collecting, I had a small house of two rooms 

 and a verandah built for myself. Here I remained nearly 

 nine months, and made an immense collection of insects, 

 to which class of animals I devoted my chief attention, 

 owing to the circumstances being especially favourable. 



In the tropics a large proportion of the insects of all 

 orders, and especially of the large and favourite group 

 of beetles, are more or less dependent on vegetation, and 

 particularly on timber, bark, and leaves in various stages 

 of decay. In the untouched virgin forest, the insects 

 which frequent such situations are scattered over an 

 immense extent of country, at spots where trees have 

 fallen through decay and old age, or have succumbed to 

 the fury of the tempest ; and twenty square miles of 

 country may not contain so many fallen and decayed trees 

 as are to be found in any small clearing. The quantity 

 and the variety of beetles and of many other insects that 

 can be collected at a given time in any tropical locality, 

 will depend, first upon the immediate vicinity of a great 

 extent of virgin forest, and secondly upon the quantity of 

 trees that fur some months past have been, and which are 



