chap, iv.] INSECTS. 57 



still being cut clown, and left to dry and decay upon the 

 ground. Now, during my whole twelve years' collecting 

 in the western and eastern tropics, I never enjoyed such 

 advantages in this respect as at the Sirnunjon coal-works. 

 For several months from twenty to fifty Chinamen and 

 Dyaks were employed almost exclusively in clearing a 

 large space in the forest, and in making a wide opening for 

 a railroad to the Sadong Eiver, two miles distant. Besides 

 this, sawpits were established at various points in the 

 jungle, and large trees were felled to be cut up into beams 

 and planks. For hundreds of miles in every direction a 

 magnificent forest extended over plain and mountain, rock 

 and morass, and I arrived at the spot just as the rains 

 began to diminish and the daily sunshine to increase ; a 

 time which I have always found the most favourable 

 season for collecting. The number of openings and sunny 

 places and of pathways, were also an attraction to wasps 

 and butterflies ; and by paying a cent each for all insects 

 that were brought me, I obtained from the Dyaks and the 

 Chinamen many fine locusts and Phasmidse, as well as 

 numbers of handsome beetles. 



When I arrived at the mines, on the 14th of March, 

 I had collected in the four preceding months, 320 different 

 kinds of beetles. In less than a fortnight I had doubled 

 this number, an average of about 24 new species every 

 day. On one clay I collected 76 different kinds, of which 



