236 



CSIEBES. 



[chap, XVI. 



obtained an insect which 1 lia'] hoped but haiiUy ex- 

 pected to meet with — the ma^rtiificcut Fapilio androclcs^ 

 one of the Iarjj[est and rarest known a wallow-tailed 

 Initterflies. During niy four days' stay at the falls I was 

 so fortunate as to obtain six good spfcimens. As thi.s 

 beautiful creature flies, tlie long white tails ilicker like 

 sti\3amei'S, and when settled on the I'each it cames them 

 raised upwaids, as if to preserve thein from injury. It is 

 scarce even here, as I did not see more than a dozen 

 spi'cimens in all, and had to follow many of them up and 

 down tlie river's bank repeatedly l>eforc I succeeded iu 

 ihiiir capture. When the sun shone lioth'st about noon, 

 the moist beacli of the pool below tlie upper fall presented 

 a beautiful sight, being dotted with gi-oups of gay buttei- 

 llies, — orange, yellow, white, blue, and green, — wluch on 

 Ijeing disturbed rose into the air by hundreds, forming 

 clouds of variegat-ed colours. 



Such gorges, chasms, and precipices as here abound, 1 

 have nowiiere seen in tlie Archijielago. A sloping surface 

 is scarcely anywhere to be found, huge walls aod rugged 

 masses of rock terminating all the mcuntains and inclosijig 

 the valleys. In many parts tliere are vertical or even 

 overhanging ijrecipiees five or six hundred feet high, yet 

 completely clothed with a tapestry of vegetation. Fenis, 

 Pandanacea?, f^hruhs, creepers, and even i"oi"est trees, are 

 mingled in an evergreen network, thix>ngh the interstices 

 of which appeal's tlie white limestone rock or the dark 

 holes and cliasnis with which It abounds. These }necipices 

 are enabled to sustain such an amount of vegetation by 

 their peculiar structui"C. Tlieir surfaces are very irregular, 

 broken into holes and fissures, with i edges overlianging 

 the months of gloomy caverns ; but from each projecting 

 part have descended stalactites, often Jbrming a wild gothie 

 tracery^ over the ca\T.s and reiieding hollows, and ailbrding 

 an admirable supi>ort to the roots of the shrubs, trees, and 

 creepers, which luxuriate in the warm pure iftmosphere 

 and the gentle moisture which con.'5tantly exudes from the 

 rocks. In places wliere the ]»recipice oflers smooth sur- 

 faces of solid rock, it remains ijuiie bare, or only staincKl 

 with liclicns and dotted with clumps of ferns that grow 

 on the small ledges and in the minutest crevices. 



