CHAP. SHULIS JNB FISHES. oOl 



I went on Siindaj, by imiitation, to see a collection of 

 shells and fish made by a gentleman of Amboyna. The 

 fishes are perhaps unrivalled for variety and beauty by 

 those of any one spot on the earth. TJje celebrated Dutch 

 ichthyologist, Dr. Bleeker, has given a catalogue of seven 

 hundred and eighty specie^s found at. Amboyna, a number 

 almost equal to those of all the seas and rivets of Eiirape. 

 A large proportion of thera are of the most brilliant colours, 

 being marked with bands and spots of the purest yellows, 

 reds, and blues; while their forms present all that strange 

 and endless variety so characteristic of the inhabitants of 

 the ocean. The shells are also veiy numei-ous, and com- 

 prise a number of the finest species in the world. The 

 Mactras and Ostreas in particular struck me by the variety 

 and beauty of their colours. Shells have long been an 

 object of traffic in Amboyna ; many of the natives get their 

 living by collecting and cleaning them, and abnost every 

 visitor takes away a small collection. The result is that 

 many of the commoner sorts have lost aE value in the eyes 

 of the amateur, numbers of the handsome but very common 

 cones, cowries, and olives sold in the streets of London for 

 a penny each, being natives of the distant isle of Amboyna^ 

 where they cannot be bought so cheaply. The fishes in 

 the collection were aU well presoT-ved in clear spirit in 

 hundreds of glass jars, and the shells were arranged in 

 large shallow pith boxes lined with paper, every specimen 

 being fastened down with thread. I roughly estimated that 

 there were nearly a thousand different kinds of shells, and 

 perhaps ten thousand specimens, while the collection of 

 Amboyna fishes was nearly perfect. 



On the 4th of January I left Amboyna for Temate ; but 

 two years later, in October 1859, I again visited it after 

 my residence in Menado, and stayed a month in the iovm 

 m a small house which I hired for the sake of assorting 

 and packing up a large and varied collection which 1 

 had brought with me from North Celebes, Temate, and 

 Gilolo. I was ol>h'ged to do this because the mail-steamer 

 would have come the follow^ing month by way of Amboyna 

 to Temate, and I should have been delayed two mouths 

 before I could have reached the former place. I then \m.^ 



