5652 Nalural-History Collectors. 



Of this, which is a high estimate, the expenses of personal board and 

 lodging may with ease be saved, if any sort of introduction is carried 

 to the proverbially hospitable Brazilians of the interior. I have been 

 assured by many that often they have found it to be impossible to 

 spend any money at all. 



Hamlet Clark. 



Mr. A. R. Wallace.* — Macassar, December 1st, 1856. — After this 

 you will probably not receive another letter from me for six or seven 

 months, so I must give you a full one now. 1 am busy packing up 

 my collections here, but have been unfortunately caught by the rains 

 before I have finished, and I fear my insects will suffer. The last 

 four or five days have been blowing, rainy weather, like our February, 

 barring the cold. In a bamboo house, full of pores and cracks and 

 crannies, through which the damp air finds its way at pleasure, you 

 may fancy it will not do to close up boxes of insects in such weather. 

 However, as the wet season has not regularly set in, we may expect 

 a little sun and dry air soon, and then I am ready to pack and close 

 everything. The neighbourhood of Macassar has much disappointed 

 me. After great trouble I discovered a place I thought rather pro- 

 mising, and after more trouble got the use of a native house there, 

 and went. 1 staid five weeks, and worked hard, though all the time 

 ill (owing to bad water I think), and often, for days together, unable 

 to do more than watch about the house for stray insects. Such 

 a weakness and languor had seized me that often, on returning with 

 some insects, I could hardly rise from my mattrass, where I had 

 thrown myself down, to set them out and put them away. However, 

 now that 1 am back at my cottage near Macassar, with a few of the 

 comforts of civilized life, I am nearly well, and will tell you what I 

 have done. 



My collections here consist of birds, shells and insects. In none 

 of these, I am sorry to say, have I got anything very remarkable. 

 The birds are pretty good as containing a good many rare and some 

 new species ; but 1 have been astonished at the want of variety corn- 

 slave, as the latter, at a distance from his master, may turn indolent and refractory. 

 However, the traveller should obtain the advice and aid of some resident Englishman. 

 Mr. Bennett, ofTijuca, the proprietor of the boarding-house there, would be well 

 competent, and I doubt not willing, to reuder any assistance. 

 * Communicated by Mr. S. Stevens. 



