cfl^p. xxiY.] POOR COLLECT mo GROUND. 339 



heavy squalls prevented our starting, ami it was not till 

 the 21at of !March tliat we got away. Early next mom lug 

 we entered the httle river, and iu about an hour we 

 reaehed the Saltan's house, whick I hml obtained per- 

 mission to use. It was situated on the bank of the river, 

 and surrounded by a forest of fruit treea, among which 

 were some of the very loftiest and most graceful cocoa-nut 

 palms 1 have ever seen. It rained nearly all tluit day, 

 and 1 could do little hut unload and unpack. Towards 

 tlie afternoon it cleared u|>, and I attempted to explore In 

 various directions, but found to niy disgust that the only 

 path was a perfect mud swamp, along wliich it was almost 

 impossible to walk, and the surrounding forest so damp 

 and dark as to promise little in the way of insects. I 

 found too on inquiry that the people here made no clear- 

 ings, living entirely on sago, fruit, hsh, and game ; and the 

 path only led to a sleep rocky mountain equally imprac- 

 ticable and unproductive. The next day 1 sent my men 

 to this hiU, hoping it might produce sonie good birds ; but 

 they returned with only two common species, and I myself 

 had been able to get notlung, every little track I had 

 attempted to follow leading to a dense sago swamp. I 

 saw that 1 should waste time by staying here, and deter- 

 mined to leave the following day. 



This is one of those spots so hard for the European 

 uaturahst to conceive, where with all the riches of a 

 ti'opical vegetation, and partly perhaps from the very 

 Inxnriance of that vegetation, insects are as scarce as in 

 the most barren parts of Europe, and hardly more con- 

 spicuous, in tenqierate climates there is a tolerable 

 uiuformity in the distribution of insects over those parts 

 of a country in which there is a similarity in the vege- 

 tation, any deficiency being easily accounted for by the 

 absence of wood or uniformity of surface. The traveller 

 hastily passing through such a country can at once pick 

 out a collecting ground which will aflbrd him a fail' 

 notion of its entomology. Here the case is dillcrent. 

 There are ceiialu requisites of a good collecting ground 

 which can only be ascertained to exist liy some days' 

 fearch hi the vicinity of each village. In some places 

 there is no viigin forest, as at Djdolo and Sahoo; in 



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