5560 Natural- History Collectors. 



village, and to get into the country with any amount of necessary 

 luggage is most difficult and expensive : then, too, the necessaries of 

 life, have all to be brought from the town, which renders living very 

 dear ; the only way of moving is by means of porters or small carriages, 

 the cost of which is about ten times that of boat hire, and in many cases 

 you must expose yourself to the risk of life and property, being beyond 

 the sphere of any civilized government. However, I hope soon to 

 make arrangements for a small house near the forest I have spoken of, 

 where I can stay a week at a time, and then bring home and store my 

 collections at my house near Macassar : already I can see that I shall 

 get a pretty good collection of birds. Raptorial birds are abundant 

 (the first place I have seen them so in the Archipelago) ; I have already 

 seven species, one or two of which I have no doubt are new : of the 

 forty species of birds I have already collected none are handsome, but 

 several, I think, are new, among them a Cinnyris and a pigeon ; the 

 rare parrot, Prionitus platurus, is not uncommon here, though I have 

 obtained as yet only one specimen. Among my few butterflies are 

 two Pieridae, handsome and quite new, and two or three Danaidae 

 which I do not remember to have seen : 1 have as yet got no Papilios, 

 but do not despair of soon obtaining some fine ones. The place where 

 I hope to do best is Bontyne, about sixty miles from here : there is a 

 road or path overland, but it would be very difficult to take all the lug- 

 gage I require by that route, and by the sea, at the present time, owing 

 to the wind being contrary, often takes from a fortnight to a month. 

 In about January, however, the wind will be fair, and the trip is then 

 only twenty-four hours, w r hen I shall probably go there, as I am in- 

 formed there is plenty of forest, and the highest mountains in the 

 island are close by. 



" The people here have some peculiar practices. ' Amok/ or, as 

 we say, c running a-muck,' is common here ; there was one last week : 

 a debt of a few dollars was claimed by a man of one who could not pay 

 it, so he murdered his creditor, and then, knowing he would be found 

 out and punished, he ' ran a-muck,' killed four persons and wounded 

 four more, and died what the natives consider an honourable death ! 

 A friend here, seeing I had my mattrass on the floor of a bamboo* 

 house, which is open beneath, told me it was very dangerous, as there 

 were many bad people about, who might come at night and push their 

 spears up through me from below, so he kindly lent me a sofa to sleep 

 on, which, however, I never used, as it is too hot in this country. 



" Alfred R. Wallace." 



