S42 



the resin called dainmar (Danininra sp.) are abun<]aut. 

 The inhabitants of several small viUagt-^s in Ratchuui ai"6 

 entirely engaged in searcbintj for this product, and makiDg 

 It into torches by pounding it and filling it into tubes of 

 palm leaves about a yard long, which are the only lights 

 used by many of the natives. Sometimes the dammar 

 accumulates in large masses of ten or twenty pounds 

 weight, either attached to the trunk, or found buried in the 

 ground at the foot of the trees. The most extraordinary 

 trees of the forest are, however, a kind of fig, the aerial 

 roots of which form a pyramid near a hundred feet higli, 

 terminating just where the tree branches out above, so that 

 there is no real trunk. This pyramid or cone is formed of 

 ix>ots of every sijse, mostly descending in straight lines, but 

 more or less obliquely — ^and so crossing each other, and 

 connected by cross branches, which grow from one to 

 anuther ; as to form a dense and complicated network, to 

 which nothing but a photograph could do justice (see illus- 

 tration at page 83). The Kanary is also abundant in 

 this forest, the nut of which lias a very agreeable flavour, 

 and produces an excellent oil. The ileshy outer covering 

 of the nut is the favourite food of the great green pigeons 

 of these islands (Carpophaf^a perspicillata), and their 

 hoarse cooings and heavy tlutt^rings among the branches 

 can be almost continually heard. 



After ten days at Langundi, finding it impossible to get 

 the bird I was particularly in sean h of (the Nicobar 

 pigeon, or a new species allied to it), and finding no new 

 birds, and very few insects, 1 left early on the morning of 

 April 1st, and in the evening entered a river on the main 

 is^land of liatcliian (Langundi, like Kasserota, being on a 

 distinct island), where some Malays and Galela men have a 

 small village, and have made extensive rice-fields and plan- 

 tiiin grounds. Here we found a good house near the river 

 bank, where the water was fresh and clear, and the owner, 

 a respectable Bat-^hian ilalay, otTered me sleeping room 

 and the use ot the verandah if I liked to stay. Seeing 

 forest all round witliin a short distance, 1 accepted his 

 offer, and the next morning before breakfast walked out to 

 explore, and on the skirts of the forest C!iptur(;d a few 

 interesting inseits. 



