CHAP. VTIL] 



TEE INTERIOR. 



127 



rue it was a form of Malay, and enabled me to guess at 

 tiie main subject of conversation. This district bad a 

 very bad reputatiou a few years ago, and travel lei's were 

 frequently robbed and murdered. Fights between village 

 and village were also of frequent occurrence, and many 

 lives were lost, owing to disputes about boundaries or 

 intrigues with women. Now, boweveiv since the country 

 has been divided into districts under " Controlleurs," who 

 visit every village in turn to hear complaints and settle 

 disputes, such things are no more heard of. This is one of 

 the numerous examples I have met with of the good effects 

 of the Dutch Grovernment. It exercises a strict surveil- 

 lance over its most distant possessions, cstablislje.s a form 

 nf government well adapted to the character of the people, 

 reforms abuses, punishes crimes, and makes itself every- 

 where respected by the native population, 



Lobo Raman is a central point of the east end of 

 Sumatra, being about a himdred and twenty miles from 

 the sea to the east, north, and west The surlace is 

 undulating, with no mountains or even hills, and there is 

 no rock, the soil being generally a red friable clay. 

 Numbers of small streams and rivers intersect the country, 

 and it is pretty equally divided between open clearings 

 and patches of foi-est, both ^^^gin and second growth, with 

 abundance of fruit trees ; and there is no lack of paths to 

 get about in any direction. Altogether it is the very 

 uoiintr}' that would promise most for a naturalist, and 

 I feel sure that at a more favourable time of year it would 

 prove exceedingly rich ; but it was now the rainy season, 

 when, in the veiy best of localities, insects are always 

 scarce, and tliere being no fruit on the trees there was 

 also a scarcity of birds. During a month's collecting, T 

 abided only three or four new species to my list of birds, 

 although I obtained very fine specimens of many 

 which Were rare and interesting. In butterflies I was 

 rather more successful, obtaining several fine species 

 quite new to me, and a considerable number of very 

 rare and beautiful insects. I will give here some account 

 of two species of butterflies, which, though very common 

 Id collections, present us with peculiarities of the highest 

 interest. 



