﻿£8o SWALLOW. 



Thefe nefts are found in vaft numbers in certain caverns, ia 

 various ifles in the Soolo Archipelago *, fituated between longitude 

 1 17 and 120, latitude 5 and 7; particularly in three fmall ifles, or 

 rather rocks; in the caverns of which the nefts are found fixed to 

 the fides in aftonifhing numbers. They are alfo found in amaz- 

 ing quantities on a fmall ifland called Toe, in the ftraits of Sunda ; 

 the caverns of which are lined with the nefts : but nowhere in 

 greater abundance than about Croee, near the fouth end of Suma- 

 tra, four miles up a river of that name. But they are not pecu- 

 liar to the above places ; for they are likewife common from 

 Java to Cochinchina on the north, and from the point of Sumatra. 

 weft, to New Guinea on the eaft ; where the fea is faid to be 

 covered with a vifcous fubftance like half-melted glue, which the 

 bird is fuppofed either to take up from the furface with its bill' 

 during flight, or to pick it from the rocks when, left there byr 

 the waves. 



The beft nefts, or thofe of a pure white, and free from mixture^ 

 fell in China from 1000 to 1500 dollars the picle f ; the black and: 

 dirty ones for only twenty dollars. The laft are fuppofed to arife 

 from age, mixed with dirt, or feathers ; and the gatherers beat, 

 down all the black ones they can get at, in hopes that, from the 

 neceffity of the birds making frefh nefts, they may meet with the 

 more valuable ones at the next gathering. It is faid, that the 

 Dutch alone export from Batavia 1000 picks of thefe nefts every 

 year J, which are brought from the ifles of Cecbinchina, and thofe. 



* Forrefi. 



+ The fide, or fekul, is about 125 pounds; or, as Damfier fays, 300 fides 

 are equal to 396 pounds Englijh weight.— See Vcy. vol. ii. p. 132. 

 % OJbtck, 



lying. 



