36 



BORNEO. 



[CBAP, IV. 



first kindly accominoilated in Mv. Coulsoii's house, but 

 linding the spat very siiitfdile for me and olTering .q:i"t'at 

 facilities for collecting, I liad a small house of two rooms 

 and a verandali built for myself. Here I remained nearly 

 nine months, and made an immense colleclion of insects, 

 to wldch class of animals I devoted my chief attention, 

 owing to the circumstances being especially favourable. 



In the tropics a hirge proportion of the insects of all 

 orders, and especially of the lai^e and favourite group 

 of beetles, are more or less dependent on vegetation, and 

 particularly on timber, bark, and leaver in various stages 

 of decay. In the untouched virgin forest, the iusects 

 which frequent such situations are scattered over an 

 innnense extent of country, at spots where trees have 

 fallen through decay and old age, or have succumbed to 

 the fury of the tempest; and twenty square nnles of 

 country may not contain so many fallen and decayed trees 

 as are to he found in any small clearing. The quantity 

 and the variety of beetles and of many other insects that 

 can be collected at a given time in any tropical locality, 

 will depend, fii'sfc upon the immediate vicinity of a great 

 extent of virgin forest, and secondly upon the quantity of 

 trees that for some montiis past have been, and which are 

 still beiJig cut down, and left to dry and decay upon the 

 ground. Now, during my whole twelve years' collecting 

 in the western and eastern tropics, I never enjoyed such 

 advantages in this respect as at the Simuiijoii coal-works. 

 For several months from twenty to fifty Chinamen and 

 Dyaks were employed almost exclusively in clearing a 

 large space in the forest, and in making a witle opening for 

 a Fciilroad to the Sadong liiver, two miles thstant. Besides 

 this, sawpits were established at various points in the 

 jungle, and large trees were felled to be cut up into beams 

 and planks. For hundreds of miles in every dii-ection a 

 magnificent forest extended over plain and mountain, rock 

 and morass, and I arrived at the spot just as the rains 

 began to diminish and the daily sunshine to increase : a 

 time which 1 have always found the most favourable 

 season for collecting. The number of openings and sunny 

 places and of pathways, were also an attraction to wjisps 

 and butterflies ; and by paying a cent each for all insects 



