chap, xvi.] EXCESSIVE DROUGHT. 375 



From these mountains to the sea extends a perfectly flat 

 alluvial plain, with no indication that water would accu- 

 mulate at a great depth beneath it, yet the authorities at 

 Macassar have spent much money in boring a well a 

 thousand feet deep in hope of getting a supply of water 

 like that obtained by the Artesian wells in the London and 

 Paris basins. It is not to be wondered at that the attempt 

 was unsuccessful. 



Eeturning to my forest hut, I continued my daily search 

 after birds and insects. The weather however became 

 dreadfully hot and dry, every drop of water disappearing 

 from the pools and rock-holes, and with it the insects 

 which frequented them. Only one group remained un- 

 affected by the intense drought ; the Diptera, or two-winged 

 flies, continued as plentiful as ever, and on these I was 

 almost compelled to concentrate my attention for a week 

 or two, by which means I increased my collection of that 

 Order to about two hundred species. I also continued to 

 obtain a few new birds, among which were two or three 

 kinds of small hawks and falcons, a beautiful brush- 

 tongued paroquet, Trichoglossus ornatus, and a rare black 

 and white crow, Corvus advena. 



At length about the middle of October, after several 

 gloomy days, down came a deluge of rain, which continued 

 to fall almost every afternoon, showing that the early part 

 of the wet season had commenced. I hoped now to get a 



