621 
i88o.] Exploration in the Far East. 
the beauty of both animal and vegetable forms of life, and 
still more the peculiarities of their distribution, have made 
these islands the very Mecca of botanists and geologists. 
The appearance of the present work has therefore been 
eagerly expected. The thought suggested itself at once— 
If Wallace has observed and recorded so much in a resi- 
dence of eight years, what must not Von Rosenberg have 
effected in thirty, and with the additional advantage of 
visiting not a few islands where Wallace never set foot, and 
especially of examining a much larger portion of New 
Guinea ! 
Further reflection will show that these demands are 
exorbitant. Mr. A. R. Wallace’s whole time was devoted 
to Science, and his going and coming were regulated ac- 
cordingly. Von Rosenberg was for twenty years in the 
military service of the Dutch Government, and his oppor- 
tunities for observation depended on his duties as an officer. 
During the last ten years of his sojourn in these lands of 
wonder and beauty he held, indeed, the appointment of 
Surveyor and Naturalist ; but a very great part of his time 
was compulsorily devoted to a topographical and statistical 
examination of the islands. Latitudes and longitudes had 
to be determined, bays and rivers measured and sounded, 
villages noted and their population enumerated. Great 
attention was also paid to the manners and customs of the 
inhabitants, their religion, architecture, language, &c., as 
also to the meteorological and sanitary conditions of every 
locality visited. That in this manner a great amount of 
useful information was collected — some of it of high scien- 
tific value— is manifest ; but the time and opportunity for 
observations in natural history, strictly speaking, were 
sadly narrowed. 
The author’s investigations extend to Sumatra, the smaller 
islands along its western coasts, Celebes, the Moluccas (in- 
cluding Ceram), the Aru, Ke, Matabello— or, as he writes it, 
Watubella — Islands, Waigiou, Ternate and Tidore, and New 
Guinea. On the coasts of Sumatra, and subsequently in 
the Moluccas, he observed a curious and obscure phenome- 
non : — At night the sea over the reefs emits a peculiar 
sound ; at the depth of 20 feet it is like the crackling of salt 
when thrown upon burning coals ; at 50 feet it sounds like 
the ticking of a watch, and is repeated more or less rapidly 
according as the bottom consists of coral alone or of coral 
intermingled with sand and mud ; over mud-banks it resem- 
bles the humming of bees. Of the marine fauna of the 
Sumatran coasts he speaks with enthusiasm. 
