chap, xvi.] MOUNTAIN PATHS. 369- 



t'eet. Thence was a steep descent through thick jungle 

 with glimpses of precipices and distant rocky mountains, 

 probably leading into the main river valley again. This 

 was a most tempting region to explore, but there were 

 several reasons why I could go no further. I had no 

 guide, and no permission to enter the Bugis territories, 

 and as the rains might at any time set in, I might be 

 prevented from returning by the flooding of the river. 

 1 therefore devoted myself during the short time of my 

 visit to obtaining what knowledge I could of the natural 

 productions of the place. 



The narrow chasms produced several fine insects quite 

 new to me, and one new bird, the curious Phlaegenas 

 tristigmata, a large ground pigeon with yellow breast and 

 crown, and purple neck. This rugged path is the highway 

 from Maros to the Bugis country beyond the mountains. 

 During the rainy season it is quite impassable, the river 

 filling its bed and rushing between perpendicular cliff's 

 many hundred feet high. Even at the time of my visit 

 it was most precipitous and fatiguing yet women and 

 children came over it daily, and men carrying heavy 

 loads of palm sugar of very little value. It was along 

 the path between the lower and the upper falls, and about 

 the margin of the upper pool, that I found most insects. 

 The large semi-transparent butterfly, Idea tondana, flew 

 lazily along by dozens, and it was here that I at length 



VOL. I. B B 



