chap, xx.] SHELLS AND FISHES. 473 



Mactras and Ostreas in particular struck me by the variety 

 and beauty of their colours. Shells have long been an 

 object of traffic in Amboyna ; many of the natives get their 

 living by collecting and cleaning them, and almost every 

 visitor takes away a small collection. The result is that 

 many of the commoner sorts have lost all value in the eyes 

 of the amateur, numbers of the handsome but very common 

 cones, cowries, and olives sold in the streets of London for 

 a penny each, being natives of the distant isle of Amboyna, 

 where they cannot be bought so cheaply. The fishes in 

 the collection were all well preserved in clear spirit in 

 hundreds of glass jars, and the shells were arranged in 

 large shallow pith boxes lined with paper, every specimen 

 being fastened down with thread. I roughly estimated that 

 there were nearly a thousand different kinds of shells, and 

 perhaps ten thousand specimens, while the collection of 

 Amboyna fishes was nearly perfect. 



On the 4th of January I left Amboyna for Ternate ; but 

 two years later, in October 1859, I again visited it after 

 my residence in Menado, and stayed a month in the town 

 in a small house which I hired for the sake of assorting 

 and packing up a large and varied collection which I 

 had brought with me from North Celebes, Ternate, and 

 Gilolo. I was obliged to do this because the mail-steamer 

 would have come the following month by way of Amboyna 



