CHAP, II.] 



INSECT HARVEST. 



25 



But it was also in a great measure dependent, 1 feel fiuit?, 

 on the labours of the Chinese wood-cutters. They liatl 

 been at work here for several years, and during all that 

 time had furnished a continual supply of dry and dead and 

 decajiiig leaves and bark, together with abundance of 

 wood and sawdust, for the nourishment of insects and 

 their larvEe. This had led to the assemblage of a gi*eat 

 variety of species in a limited space, and I was the iirst 

 naturalist who had come to reap the harvest they had 

 prepared. In the same place, and during my walks in 

 other directions, I obtained a fair collection of butter- 

 flies and of other orders of insectSj so that on the whole 

 T was quite satisfied with these my first attempts tu 

 gain a knowledge of the Natural History of the Mahiy 

 Archipelago. 



CHAPTER IIL 



KALACCA AJTD MOUNT OPSni. 

 {rum TO sETTKMJaEH, ISSi.y 



BIBDS and most other kinds of animals being scarce at 

 Singapore, I left it in July for Malacca, where I spent 

 more than two months in the interior, and made an ex- 

 cursion to Mount Ophir. The old and picturesque town 

 uf Malacca if? crowded along the banks of the small river, 

 and consists of narrow streets of shops and dwelling- 

 houses» occupied by the descendants of the I'ortuguese, 

 and by Chinamen, In the subui'bs are the houses of the 

 English officials and of a few Portuguese merchants, 

 embedded in groves of palms and fruit-trees, whose vaiieil 

 and beautiful fohage furnishes a pleasing reUef to the eye, 

 as well as most grateful shade. 



The old fort, me large Government House, and the ram.^ 

 of a cathedral, attest the former wealth and importance 

 of tliis place, which was once as much the centre of 

 Eastern trade as Singapore is now. The following de- 



y 



