CH. m ON BOARD H.M.S. 'FLYING FISH' 47 



Professor Moseley records the same abundance of insect Kfe 

 on the heights of the Gunong api of Ban da and the volcano of 

 Temate (49). 



I was on the point of leaving the officers, whose work 

 was not concluded by the time I had finished all that I 

 wished to do, when we saw a little way below us the showers 

 of dust and stones which marked the footsteps of a visitor. 

 Strange as it may seem, the visitor was no other than one of 

 our guides who, braving the wrath of the spirits of his 

 ancestors who dwell for ever at the summit of the mountain, 

 had come to beg a drop of water to quench his thirst. Un- 

 fortunately, our own throats were in the same condition as 

 his, and we had not the wherewithal to satisfy them, so that 

 it did not require much pressure upon my part to persuade 

 him to return with me to the ship. 



The descent was quickly accompHshed, and a plateful of 

 good soup prepared by the excellent Chinese cook soon re- 

 lieved me of my thirst and fatigue. Two hours later the 

 rest of the party arrived, none the worse for the hard day's 

 work. 



When I look back upon this visit to the Euang I feel 

 that in many ways I had greater opportunities for collecting 

 specimens of botany and terrestrial zoology there than I 

 had in the same space of time at any other period of my 

 stay in the tropics. The absence of any old forest trees 

 and the presence of a considerable imdergrowth bring the 

 flowers, the birds, and insects, and in fact all objects of 

 natural history, much closer to the hands of the naturalist 

 than they are usually in tropical forests. 



I regret now exceedingly that my collections from the 

 Euang are not more extensive, but I admit that at the time 

 I did not appreciate the value of my opportunity, and my 

 anxiety not to be separated from the party during the ascent 

 and the cravings of my flesh for water during the descent 



