EXCESSIVE BROUGHT. 



239 



country is Hooded iti the wet seii-son, and tlience decreasing 

 regularly to the ground. Many of tliem overhang consider- 

 ably, and some of the slenderer pillars appear to stand upon 

 a point. When the rock is less solid it becomes curiously 

 honeycombed by the rains of successive winterg, and I 

 noticed some nuisse'j reduced to a complete network of 

 stone, through which light could be seen in eveiy ilirection. 

 From these mountains to the sea extends a perfectly hat 

 nlluvial plain, with no intlication that water would aeeu- 

 mulate at a great depth beneath it, yet the autiiorities at 

 Macassiir have spent much money in boring a well a 

 thousaud feet deep in hope of getting a supply of water 

 like thatobtiiined by the Artesian wells in the London and 

 Taria basins. It is not to be wondered at that the attempt 

 was unsuccessful 



Keturning to niy forest hut, T continued my daily sean-.h 

 after birds and insects. The weather however became 

 dreadfully hot and dry, every drop of water disappearing 

 from the pools and rock-holes, and with it the insects 

 which frcfpxented them Only one gi'onp remained un- 

 afi'ected by the intense drouglit ; the Diptera, or two- winged 

 flies, continued ay plentiful as ever, and on tliese I wa-s 

 almost compelled to concentrate my attention for a week 

 or two, by which means 1 increiised ray collection of that 

 Order to about two hnndred species. I also continued to 

 obUiin a few new birds, among which were two or three 

 kinds of small hawks and falcons, a beautiful brush- 

 tongued paroquet, Trichoglossus ornatns, and a rare black 

 and white crow/Cor%iis atlvena. 



At length about the middle of October, after sevei-al 

 gloomy days, down came a deluge of rain, which contimied 

 to fall almost every afternoon, showing that the early part 

 of the wet season liail commenced. I hoped now to get a 

 good harvest of insects, and in some respects I was not 

 ilisappointed. Beetles became much more numerous, and 

 under a tliick bed of leaves that had accumulated on some 

 rocks by the side of a forest stream, I found abundance of 

 CarabidaB, a fiimdy generally scarce in the tropics. The 

 butterflies however disappeared. Two of my servants 

 were attacked with fever, dysentery, and swelled feet, just 

 at the time that the third had lel^ me, and for some days 



