242 
[April, 
1 ar Last more than I have ; and the most part of my jonrnevings have 
been on foot, or in small boats, and, as far as my experience goes, the 
Tropics cannot compare in the smallest degree with the temperate 
zone for profusion of butterflies, flowers, and birds. I have described 
in one of your back numbers (E. M. M.,vol. xiv, p. 54) the azalea-clad 
hills of the Snowy Yalley, in the “ Central Flowery Land,” and never 
anywhere throughout all my wanderings in tropical forests have I seen 
anything that in the slightest approached that Paradise for naturalists. 
The forest of the Philippines is the most impressive I know, the 
canopy of leaves is thicker, and, therefore, the gloom below more 
intense, the air feels a chillier damp, and the absence of life and sound 
is more complete than in any other forest I have been in ; butterflies, 
in particular, are never found under the forest canopy. In Borneo, 
the canopy overhead is not quite so dense, the air is a trifle warmer, 
occasionally a monkey, a squirrel, or a bird may been seen, and, 
possibly, some errant specimen of the Salyridce may be found wander- 
ing about even in the true forest. In Malaya proper there are lots 
of old re-grown clearings ; the air is a moist heat ; the vegetation is 
in huge masses, much more luxuriant than in either of the others ; 
and that feeling of mysterious awe, which is in reality the real attrac- 
tion of the tropical forest, is not nearly so much felt. But wherever 
he may be going, the inexperienced entomologist in the Tropics must 
not expect too much at first, until he has found out the nooks and 
corners most frequented by his game, for butterflies in the Tropics are 
not to be found everywhere, but have their favourite places, as well 
as those in England. I remember my first day’s entomologizing in 
North Borneo : no other insect-hunter had ever been within a couple 
of hundred miles of the place ; there was dense forest all round, the 
eat her vas fine, I was in the middle of the Oruithopterci country, and, 
armed with a net of most portentous dimensions, and with mv head 
full of thoughts of two or three new Papilios at least, I plunged into 
the forest. 
Three hours later I was back at the steamer again, a wiser, at all 
events, if not a better man, but anyhow, a pound or two lighter ! I 
had tried the open, and I had tried the forest ; I had penetrated into 
the depths of a mangrove swamp, and I had been bemired in a “ nepa,” 
then I tried the edge of the jungle, and afterwards some re-grown 
land, all in vain ! and, positively, when I got on board, my collecting 
box contained but one specimen of the universal Melanitis Leda , and a 
battered and washed-out Nepiis, which looked as though it might have 
been the abundant N. Evrynome when fresh ; and these were the only 
