32 A NATURALIST IN CELEBES ch. ii 



upon I assumed my most serious tone and said, ' Manuel, 

 I shall be very angry with you if you do not bring fifty 

 ikan chicchak to-morrow morning.' Manuel left me, and 

 by breakfast time on the following day he brought me fifty 

 Periophthalmuses alive in a large glass vessel. 



The secret of his success is soon told. When he left 

 me he consulted another boy of mine named Marcus, who, 

 having been born and bred in the country districts, was 

 well acquainted with all the snares and dodges used by boys 

 for catching every living thing that flies, runs, or swims. 

 Now Marcus always had at hand a small bamboo blow-pipe, 

 ^nd in a moment he could manufacture a Httle dart out of 

 a piece of stick and a plug of cotton wool. 



In the early morning the two boys sallied out armed 

 with this weapon, and in an hour or two they had succeeded 

 in capturing some fifty specimens. They were all slightly 

 wounded, it is true, but still they lived for some time in a 

 glass bowl upon my table. They are, of course, excellent 

 and rapid swimmers, but nevertheless they preferred to fix 

 themselves to the sides of the bowl with their heads above 

 the water and stare about them with their extraordinary 

 goggle eyes. 



Having finished our work inBohoiBay, we returned to the 

 little village, and found that some of the native men had 

 ventured from their retreat. We presented the chief with a 

 handful of tobacco for having thus unceremoniously intruded 

 upon his property, and then steamed away to rejoin the 

 ship. 



Two or three days after our visit to Bohoi Bay the 

 ' Flying Fish ' anchored off the northern point of Limbe 

 Island. 



It is a wild, inhospitable spot, with a strong tide 

 running in and out of the Straits of Limbe. Steep 

 cliffs of basalt rise almost perpendicularly from the water 



