Natural-History Collectors. 7035 



place, where there has been a good fire, of which nothing remains but 

 hot coals and ashes, and to take care to turn thera frequently. To 

 kill insects 1 employ a means which I consider preferable to all others : 

 I have a tin biscuit-box of very small dimensions, closing hermetically 

 and with ease ; in case of need I slip into it the small flat pieces of 

 cork upon which I have pinned my insects ; I then close it and expose 

 it for a few minutes to the sun, or near the fire if the day is cloudy. 

 In this manner the most lively insects, such as the Longicornes and 

 the Lucani, soon die. They also dry very quickly when exposed to 

 the sun in a tin box left open. As to the skins of birds I put them 

 in a box on cotton, taking care above all that the edges are well 

 covered with it ; that alone is sufficient to prevent the ants from pene- 

 trating. It very often happens that a bird is brought to you with its 

 delicate plumage covered with blood, and after having washed it you 

 have no plaster to dry it ; fine sand will, however, answer every pur- 

 pose ; you have only to rub the feathers after having washed the bird 

 with rather a hard brush until it is quite clean and dry ; of course the 

 drier and warmer the sand is the better it will answer your purpose. 

 Should you think that these few remarks might be useful to collectors, 

 and especially to travellers, I shall be obliged to you if you will make 

 them known, for in distant countries, where one is frequently deprived 

 of all resources, and where one has frequently no other shelter than 

 a miserable hut, simple expedients are in reality the best, as a very 

 trifle may save from destruction rich and valuable collections. 



All ray researches for insects upon the higher parts of the mountain, 

 where there are neither footpaths nor fallen trees, have been unfruitful, 

 and I have found a considerable quantity at the base, and especially 

 in damp places covered with dead wood, the dried bark of which parts 

 very easily from the trunk. The province of Chantaburi, where I am 

 at present, is one of the most beautiful, the most healthy and at the 

 same time the most thickly populated in the kingdom of Siam. The 

 population of its chief town is only 2500 or 3000, composed of 

 Annamite fishers, Chinese merchants and Siamese cultivators, but 

 the environs contain more than double that population. All the 

 base of Mount Sabab and other neighbouring mountains are inhabited 

 by Chinese, who plant pepper and sugar canes, the Siamese being 

 further off towards the plains, where they have their rice fields. 

 Unhappily, here, as in all other parts of this country, slavery and the 

 heavy taxes which oppress the cultivators prevent all progress as well 

 as the increase of the population. Coffee, which grows admirably 

 here, and is of a superior quality, is only cultivated by the Governor. 



