134 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



ketful after basketful of the species that I had al- 

 ways regarded as the rarest and most valuable bep^an 

 to appear, eveiy native being anxious to dispose of his 

 lot before his fellows, and thus obtain a share of the 

 envied shining coin, which I was carefiil to display to 

 theii' gloating eyes before I should say I had bought 

 all I desired. Competition, here as elsewhere, had a 

 wonderfully depressing effect on the price of their com- 

 modities, judging irom what they asked at first and 

 what they were finally wOling to take. The trade, 

 however, became more brisk day after day, and some 

 natives came fi-om long distances partly to sell their 

 shells and partly to see whether " that man " could be 

 sane who had come so fai* and was spending, accord- 

 ing to their ideas, so much money for shells. At first 

 I bought them by the basketful, until all the more 

 common species had been obtained, and then T showed 

 the natives the figm*es in Ilmui>hius's " Rariteit Kar 

 mer " of those species I still ^vished to secure, and at 

 the same time offered them an extra price for others 

 not represented in that compTehensive work One 

 species I was particularly anxious to secure alive. It 

 was the pearly nautilus. The shell has always been 

 common, but the animal has seldom been described. 

 The first was fonnd at this place, and a description 

 and drawing were given by Ilumphius. Afifeerward 

 a dissection and drawing were given by Professor 

 Owen, of the British Museum, and his monogi*aph 

 probably contains the most complete anatomical de- 

 scription that has e\-er been made of any animal 

 from a single specimen. He worked, as he himself 

 described it to me, mila a dissecting-knife in one hand 



