The Malay Archipelago : the land of the oranguatan, and the bird of paradise. A narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature

Front matter

ORANG-UTAN ATTACKED BY DYAKS.

NATIVES OF AEU SHOOTING THE GKEAT BIRD OF PARADISE.

THE

Preface

MY readers will natjirally ask why I have delayed writing this book for six years after my return ; and I feel bound to give them full satisfaction on this point.

When I reached England in the spring of 1862, 1 found myself surrounded by a room full of packing-cases, containing the collections that I had from time to time sent home for my private use. These comprised nearly three thousand bird-skins, of about a' thousand species ; and at least twenty thousand beetles and butterflies, of about seven thousand species ; besides some quadrupeds and land-shells. A large proportion of these I had not seen for years ; and iif my then weak state of health, the unpacking, sorting, and arranging of such a mass of specimens occupied a long time".

I very soon decided that, until I had done something toward naming and describing the most important groups in my collection, and had worked out some of the more interesting problems of variation and geographical distribution, of which I had had glimpses while collecting them, I would not attempt to publish my travels. I could, indeed, at once have printed my notes and journals, leaving all reference to questions of natural history for a fiiture work ; but I felt that this would be as unsatisfactory to myself, as it would be disappointing to my friends, and uninstructive to the public.

Since my return, up to this date, I have published eighteen papers, in the Transactions or Proceedings of the Linnsean Zoological and Entomological Societies, describing or cataloguing portions of my collections ; besides twelve others in various scientific periodicals, on more general subjects connected with them.

l!Tearly two thousand of my Coleoptera, and many hundreds of my butterflies, have been already described by various eminent naturalists, British and foreign ; but a much larger number remains undescribed. Among those to whom science is most indebted for this laborious work, I must name Mr. F. P. Pascoe, late President of the Entomological Society of London, who has almost completed the classification and description of my large collection of Longicorn beetles (now in his possession), comprising more than a thousand species, of vi Preface^

wMch at least nine Mindred were previously undescribed, and new to European cabinets.

The remaining orders of insects, comprising probably more than two thousand species, are in the collection of Mr. William Wilson Saunders, who has caused the larger portion of them to be described by good entomologists. The Hymenoptera alone ^amounted to more than nine hundred species, among which were two hundred and eighty different kinds of ants, of which two hundred were new.

The six years' delay in publishing my travels thus enables me to give what I hope may be an interesting and instructive sketch of the main results yet arrived at by the study of my collections ; and as the countries I have to describe are not much visited or written about, and their social and physical conditions are not liable to rapjd change, I believe and hope that my readers will gain much more than they willlose, by not having read my book six years ago, and by this time perhaps forgotten all about it.

I must now say a few words on the plan of my work.

My journeys to the various islands were regulated by the seasons and the means of conveyance. I visited some islands two or three -times at distant intervals^ and in some cases had to make the same voyage four times over. A chronological arrangement would have puzzled my readers. They would never have known where they were ; and my frequent references .to the groups of islands, classed in accordance with the peculiarities of their animal productions and of their human inhabitants, would have been hardly intelligible. I have adopted, therefore, a geographical, zoological, and ethnological arrangement, passing from island to island in what seems the most natural succession, while I transgress the order in which I myself visited them as little as possible,

I divide the Archipelago into ^yb groups of islands, as follow:

I. The iNDO-MAiAY Isi/Airosj comprising the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra.

II. The Timor Gkoup : comprising the islands of Timor, Flores, Sumbawa, and Lombock, with several smaller ones.

III.. Celebes : comprising also the Sula Islands and Bouton.

lY. The Moluccas Group: comprising Bouru, Ceram, Batchian, Gilolo, and Morty ; with the smaller islands of Temate, Tidore, Makian, Kaioa, Amboyna, Banda, Goram, and Matabello.

V. The Papuan Group : comprising the great island of New Guinea, with the Aru Islands, Mysol, Salwatty, Waigiou, and several others. The Ke Islands are described with this group on account of their ethnology, though zoologically and geographically they belong to the Moluccas.

The chapters relating to the separate islands of each of these

Preface. vii

groups are followed by one on the Natural History of that group ; and the work may thus be divided into five parts, each treating of one of the natural divisions of the Archipelago.

The first chapter is an introductory one, on the physical geography of the whole region ; and the last is a general sketch of the races of man in the Archipelago and the surrounding countries. With this explanation, and a reference to the maps which illustrate the work, I trust that my readers will always know where they are, and in what direction they are going.

I am well aware that my book is far too small for the extent of the subjects it touches upon. It is a mere sketch; but so far as it goes I have endeavored to make it an accurate one. Almost the whole of the narrative and descriptive portions were written on the spot, and have had little more than verbal alterations. The chapters on Natural History, as well as many passages in other parts of the work, have been written in the hope of exciting an interest in the various questions connected with the origin of species and their geographical distribution. In some cases I have been able to explain my views in detail ; while in others, owing to the greater complexity of the subject, I have thought it better to confine myself to a statement of the more interesting facts of the problem, whose solution is to be found in the principles developed by Mr. Darwin in his various works. The numerous illustrations will, it is believed, add much to the interest and value of the book. They have been made from my own sketches, from photographs, or from specimens ; and such subjects only have been chosen as would really illustrate the narrative or the descriptions.

I have to thank Messrs. Walter and Henry Woodbury, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making in Java, for a number of photographs of scenery and of natives, which have been of the greatest assistance to me. Mr. William Wilson Saunders has kindly allowed me to figure the curious horned flies ; and to Mr. Pasco I am indebted for a loan of two of the very rare Longicoms which appear in the plate of Bomean beetles. All the other specimens figured are in my own collection.

As the main object of all my journeys was to obtain specimens of natural history, both for my private collection and to supply duplicates to museums and amateurs, I will give a general statement of the number of specimens I collected, and which reached home in good condition. I must premise that I generally employed one or two, and sometimes three Malay servants to assist me ; and for nearly half the time had the services of an English lad, Charles Allen. I was just eight years away from England, but as I travelled about fourteen thousand miles mthin the Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy separate journeys, each involving some preparation and loss viii Preface.

of time, I do not think that more than six years were really occupied in collecting. , I find that my Eastern collections amounted to :

310 specimens of Mammalia.

u

Reptiles.

8,050

u

Birds.

ci

Shells.

13,100

a

Lepidoptera.

83,200

c;

Coleoptera.

13,400

u

other insects.

125,660 specimens of natural history.

It now only remains for me to thank all those Mends to whom I am indebted for assistance or information. My thanks are more especially due to the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, through whose valuable recommendations I obtained important aid from our own Government and from that of Holland ; and to Mr. William Wilson Saunders, whose kind and liberal encouragement in the early portion of my journey was of great service to me. I am also greatly indebted to Mr. Samuel Stevens (who acted as my agent), both for the care he took of my collections, and for the untiring assiduity with which he kept me supplied, both mth usefiil information, and with whatever necessaries I required.

I trust that these, and all other friends who have been in any way interested in my travels and collections, may derive from the perusal of my book some faint reflection of the pleasures I myself enjoyed amid the scenes and objects it describes.

CONTENTS,

OUAP. PAGE

I. Physical Geography 13

INDO-MALAY ISLANDS.

II. Singapore 32

III. Malacca and Mount Ophir 87

IV. Borneo— The Orang-Utan 46

V. Borneo — Journey in the Interior 75

VI. Borneo— The Dyaks 98

VII. Java 105

VIII. Sumatra 132

IX. Natural History of the Indo-Malay Islands 148

THE TIMOR GROUP.

X. Bali amd Lombock , 160

XI. Lombock — Manners and Customs 173

XII. Lombock — How the Rajah took the Census. 180

XIII. Timor 193

XIV. Natural History' of the Timor Group 210

THE CELEBES GROUP.

XV. Celebes— Macassar 219

XVT. Celebes — Macassar 236

XVII. Celebes— Menado 249

XVIII. Natural History op Celebes 277

THE MOLUCCAS.

XIX. Banda 292

XX. Amboyna 298

XXr . Tbrnate 312

XXII. GiLOLO 320

XXIII. Voyage to the Kaioa Islands and Batchian 325

XXIV. Batchian 383

XXV. Ceram, Goram, and the Matabello Islands 355

XXVI. BouRu 387

XXVII. The Natural History of the Moluccas 396

X Contents.

THE PAPUAN GROUP.

CHAP. PAGE

XXVIII. Macassar to the Aku Islands in a Native Prau 408

XXIX. The Ke Islands 420

XXX. The Aru Islands— Residence in Dobbo 432

XXXI. The Aru Islands— Journey and Residence in the Interior 445

XXXII. The Aru Islands— Second Residence in Dobbo 476

XXXIII. The Aru Islands— Physical Geography and Aspects of

Nature 487

XXXIV. New Guinea— Dorey 496

XXXV. Voyage from Geram to Waigiou 516

XXXVI. Waigiou 528

XXXVII. Voyage from Waigiou to Ternate . . .' 540

XXXVIII. The Birds of Paradise 552

XXXIX. Natural History of the Papuan Islands 576

XL. The Races of Man in the Malay Archipelago 584

APPENDIX ON Crania and Languages 600

INDEX 627

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

DEAWN ON WOOD BY PAGE

1. Orang-Utan attacked by Dyaks Wolf Frontispiece

2. Natives shooting the Great Bird of Paradise. T. W. Wood Do.

3. Rare Ferns on Mount Ophir. (From specimens) Fitch 42

4. Remarkable Bornean Beetles Robinson — to face p, 48

5. Flying Frog. (From a drawing hy the Author') Keulemans 50

6. Female Orang-utaii. (From a photograph hy

Woodbury) Wolf 52

7. Portrait of a Dyak Youth. (From sketch and

photographs) Baines 77

8. Dyak Suspension-bridge. (From a slcetch hy

the Author) Fitch 89

9. Vanda Lowii. (From specimens) Fitch 92-

10. Remarkable Forest-trees. (From a sTcetch hy

the Author) Fitch 93

11. Ancient Bas-relief. (From a specimen in pos-

session of the Author) Baines 112

12. Portrait of a Javanese Chief. (From a photo-

graph) Baines 120

13. The Calliper Butterfly (Charaxes Kadenii) T. W. Wood 124

14. Primula imperialis. (From specimens) Fitch . . 127

15. Chief's House and Rice-shed in a Sumatran Vil-

lage. (From a photograph) Robinson 186

16. Females of Papilio memnon Robinson 138

17. Papilio coon » - Robinson 139

1^. Leaf-butterfly in flight and repose T. W. Wood. 141

19. Female Hornbill and young bird T. W. Wood 146

20. Gram matophy Hum, a gigantic Orchid. (From a

slcetch hy the Author) : Fitch 149

21. Gun-boring in Lombock. (From a sketch hy the

Author) Baines 179

22. Timor Men. (From a photograph) Baines 204

23. Native Plow and Yoke, Macassar. (From a

sketch by the Author) Baines 233

24. Sugar Palms. (From a sketch hy the Author) Fitch 238

25. Skull of the Babirusa > . . . = Robinson 283

26. Peculiar form of Wings of Celebes Butterflies Wallace 288

27. Ejecting an Intruder. Baines. .... .to face p. 304 xii List of Illusteations.

DKAWN BY WOOD BY PAGE

28. Racquet-tailed Kingfisher Robinson 305

29. "Wallace's Standard Wing," a new Bird of

Paradise Keulemans. .to/t^ce j?. 336

30. Sago Club Baines 383

31. Sago-washing in Ceram. {From a sketch by the

Author) Baines 384

32. Sago Oven. (From a sketch by the A uthor) . . . Baines 385

33. Cuscus ornatus, a Moluccan Marsupial Robinson 399

34. Moluccan Beetles Robinson to face p. 406

35. Great Black Cockatoo T. W. Wood 451

36. Dobbo in the Trading Season. (From a sketch

by the Author) Baines to face p. 476

37. Male Brenthidas fighting Robinson 482

38. Papuan, New Guinea Baines 500

39. Papuan Pipe. (From a sketch by the Author) Baines 503

40. Horned Flies Robinson 505

41. Clay-beater, used in New Guinea Robinson 512

42. The Red Bird of Paradise T. W. Wood 531

43. My house at Bessir, Waigiou. (From a sketch

by the Author) Baines 535

44. Malay Anchor. (From a sketch by the Author) Baines 546

45. The "Twelve-wired" and the "King" Birds

of Paradise Keulemans. . ^o/ace jp. 552

46. The Magnificent Bird of Paradise Keulemans 562

47. The Superb Bird of Paradise Keulemans 563

48. The Six-shafted Bird of Paradise Keulemans 564

49. The Long-tailed Bird of Paradise Keulemans 569

50. The Great-shielded Grasshopper Robinson 580

51. Papuan Charm Robinson 588

MAPS.

Map showing Mr. Wallace's Route (tinted) at beginning of Preface

The British Isles and Borneo on the same scale 15

Physical Map (tinted) Jo face p. 21

Map of Minahasa, North Celebes • 254

Map of Amboyna 299

Amboyna, with parts of Bouru and Ceram , 356

The Islands between Ceram and Ke. . « 359

Map of the Aru Islands » 446

Voyage from Ceram to Waigiou 517

Voyage from Waigiou to Ternate. , , 541

The Malay Archipelago.

Chapter I. Physical Geography

If we look at a globe or a map of the eastern hemisphere, we shall perceive between Asia and Australia a number of large and small islands, forming a connected group distinct from those great masses of land, and having little connection with either of them. Situated upon the equator, and bathed by the tepid water of the great tropical oceans, this region enjoys a climate more uniformly hot and moist than almost any other part of the globe, and teems with natural productions which are elsewhere unknown. The richest of fruits and the most precious of spices are here indigenous. It produces the giant flowers of the Rafflesia, the great green-winged Ornithoptera (princes among the butterfly tribes), the man-like orang-utan, and the gorgeous birds of paradise. It is inhabited by a peculiar and interesting race of mankind — the Malay, found nowhere beyond the limits of this insular tract, which has hence been named the Malay Archipelago.

To the ordinary Enghshman this is perhaps the least known part of the globe. Our possessions m it are few and scanty ; scarcely any of our travellers go to explore it ; and in many collections of maps it is almost ignored, being divided between Asia and the Pacific Islands. It thus happens that few persons realize that, as a whole, it is comparable with the primary divisions of the globe, and that some of its separate islands are larger than France or the Austrian empire. The traveller, however, soon acquires different ideas. He sails for days, or even for weeks, along the shores of one of these great islands, often so great that its inhabitants believe it to be a vast continent. He finds that voyages among these islands

14 The Malay Aechipelago.

are commonly reckoned by weeks and months, and that their several inhabitants are often as little known to each other as are the native races of the northern to those of the southern continent of America. He soon comes to look upon this region as one apart from the rest of the world, with its own races of men and its own aspects of nature ; with its own ideas, feelings, customs, and modes of speech, and with a climate, vegetation, and animated life altogether peculiar to itseK.

From many points of view these islands form one compact geographical whole, and as such they have always been treated by travellers and men of science ; but a more careful and detailed study of them under various aspects reveals the unexpected fact that they are divisible into two portions nearly equal in extent, which widely differ in their natural products, and really form parts of two of the primary divisions of the earth. I have been able to prove this in considerable detail by my observations on the natural history of the various parts of the Archipelago; and as in the description of my travels and residence in the several islands I shall have to refer continually to this view, and adduce facts in support of it, I have thought it advisable to commence with a general sketch of such of the main features of the Malayan region as will render the facts hereafter brought forward more interesting, and their bearing on the general question more easily understood, I proceed, therefore, to sketch the limits and extent of the Archipelago, and to point out the more striking features of its geology, physical geography, vegetation, and animal life.

JDefinition and Boundaries, — ^For reasons which depend mainly on the distribution of animal life, I consider the Malay Archipelago to include the Malay Peninsula as far as Tenasserim, and the Mcobar Islands on the west, the Philippines on the north, and the Solomon Islands beyond N'ew Guinea on the east. All the great islands included within these limits are connected together by innumerable smaller ones, so that no one of them seems to be distinctly separated from the rest. With but few exceptions, all enjoy a uniform and very similar climate, and are covered with a luxuriant forest vegetation. Whether we study their form and distribution on maps, or actually travel from island to island, our first impression will

Physical Gteography.

be that they form a connected whole, all the parts of which are intimately related to each other.

Extent of the Archipelago and Islands, — The Malay Archipelago extends for more than 4000 miles in length from east to west, and is about 1300 in breadth from north to south. It would stretch over an expanse equal to that of all Europe

THE BRITISH ISLES AND BORNEO ON THE SAME SCALE.

from the extreme west far into Central Asia, or would cover the widest parts of South America, and extend far beyond the land into the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It includes three islands larger than Great Britain ; and in one of them, Borneo, the whole of the British Isles might be set down, and would be surrounded by a sea of forests. ISTew Guinea, though less

16 The Malay Aechipelago.

compact in shape, is probably larger than Borneo. Sumatra is about equal in extent to Great Britain ; Java, Luzon, and Celebes are each about the size of Ireland. Eighteen more islands are, on the average, as large as Jamaica ; more than a hundred are as large as the Isle of Wight ; while the isles and islets of smaller size are innumerable. The absolute extent of land in the Archipelago is not greater than that contained by- Western Europe from Hungary to Spain ; but, owing to the manner in which the land is broken up and divided, the variety of its productions is rather in proportion to the immense surface over which the islands are spread, than to the quantity of land which they contain.

Geological Contrasts. — One of the chief volcanic belts upon the globe passes through the Archipelago, and produces a striking contrast in the scenery of the volcanic and non-volcanic islands. A curving line, marked out by scores of active and hundreds of extinct volcanoes, may be traced through the whole length of Sumatra and Java, and thence by the islands of Bali, Lombock, Sumbawa^ Flores, the Serwatty Islands, Banda, Amboyna, Batchian, Makian, Tidore, Ternate, and Gilolo, to Morty Island. Here there is a slight but well-marked break, or shift, of about 200 miles to the westward, where the volcanic belt again begins, in North Celebes, and passes by Siau and Sanguir to the Philippine Islands, along the eastern side of which it continues, in a curving line, to their northern extremity. From the extreme eastern bend of this belt at Banda, we pass onward for 1000 miles over a non-volcanic district to the volcanoes observed by Dampier, in 1699, on the north-eastern coast of N^ew Guinea, and can there trace another volcanic belt, through New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands, to the eastern limits of the Archipelago.

In the whole region occupied by this vast line of volcanoes, and for a considerable breadth on each side of it, earthquakes are of continual recurrence, slight shocks being felt at intervals of every few weeks or months, while more severe ones, shaking down whole villages, and doing more or less injury to life and property, are sure to happen, in one part or another of this district, almost every year. In many of the islands the years of the great earthquakes form the chronological epochs of the native inhabitants, by the aid of which the ages of their children are remembered, and the dates of many important events are determined.

I can only briefly allude to the many fearful eruptions that have taken place in this region. In the amount of injury to life and property, and in the magnitude of their effects, they have not been surpassed by any upon record. Forty villages were destroyed by the eruption of Papandayang, in Java, in 1'7'72, when the whole mountain was blown up by repeated explosions, and a large lake left in its place. By the great eruption of Tomboro, in Sumbawa, in 1815, 12,000 people were destroyed, and the ashes darkened the air and fell thickly upon the earth and sea for 300 miles round. Even quite recently, since I quitted the country, a mountain which had been quiescent for more than 200 years suddenly burst into activity. The island of Makian, one of the Moluccas, was rent open in 1646 by a violent eruption, which left a huge chasm on one side, extending into the heart of the mountain. It was when I last visited it, in 1860, clothed with vegetation to the summit, and contained twelve populous Malay villages. On the 29tli of December, 1862, after 215 years of perfect inaction, it again suddenly burst forth, blowing up and completely altering the appearance of the mountain, destroying the greater part of the inhabitants, and sending forth such volumes of ashes as to darken the air at Ternate, forty miles off, and to almost entirely destroy the growing crops on that and the surrounding islands.

The island of Java contains more volcanoes, active and extinct, than any other known district of equal extent. They are about forty-five in number, and many of them exhibit most beautiful examples of the volcanic cone on a large scale, single or double, with entire or truncated summits, and averaging 10,000 feet high.

It is now well ascertained that almost all volcanoes have been slowly built up by the accumulation of matter — -mud, ashes, and lava — ejected by themselves. The openings or craters, however, frequently shift their position; so that a country may be covered with a more or less irregular series of hills in chains and masses, only here and there rising into lofty cones, and yet the whole may be produced by true volcanic action. In this manner the greater part of Java has been

B formed. There has been some elevation, especially on the south coast, where extensive cliffs of coral limestone are found, and there may be a substratum of older stratified rocks ; but still essentially Java is volcanic ; and that noble and fertile island— the very garden of the East, and perhaps upon the whole the richest, the best cultivated, and the best governed tropical island in the world — owes its very existence to the same intense volcanic activity which stiU occasionally devastates its surface.

The great island of Sumatra exhibits, in proportion to its extent, a much smaller number of volcanoes, and a considerable portion of it has probably a non-volcanic origin.

To the eastward, the long string of islands from Java, passing by the north of Timor and away to Banda, are probably all due to volcanic action. Timor itself consists of ancient stratified rocks, but is said to have one volcano near its centre.

Going northward, Amboyna, a part of Bouru, and the west end of Ceram, the north part of Gilolo, and all the small islands around it, the northern extremity of Celebes, and the islands of Siau and Sanguir, are wholly volcanic. The Philippine Archipelago contains many active and extinct volcanoes, and has probably been reduced to its present fragmentary condition by subsidences attending on volcanic action.

All along this great line of volcanoes are to be found more or less palpable signs of upheaval and depression of land. The range of islands south of Sumatra, a part of the south coast of Java and of the islands east of it, the west and east end of Timor, portions of all the Moluccas, the Ke and Aru Islands, Waigiou, and the whole south and east of Gilolo, consist in a great measure of upraised coral rock exactly corresponding to that now forming in the adjacent seas. In many places I have observed the unaltered surfaces of the elevated reefs, with great masses of coral standing up in their natural position, and hundreds of shells so fresh-looking tJiat it was hard to believe that they had been more than a few years out of the water ; and, in fact, it is very probable that such changes have occurred within a few centuries.

The united lengths of these volcanic belts is about ninety degrees, or one-fourth of the entire circumference of the globe. Their width is about fifty miles ; but, for a space of two hundred on each side of them, evidences of subterranean action are to be found in recently elevated coral rock, or in barrier coral reefs, indicating recent submergence. In the very centre or focus of the great curve of volcanoes is placed the large island of Borneo, in which no sign of recent volcanic action has yet been observed, and where earthquakes, so characteristic of the surrounding regions, are entirely unknown. The equally large island of IsTew Guinea occupies another quiescent area, on which no sign of volcanic action has yet been discovered. With the exception of the eastern end of its northern peninsula, the large and curiously-shaped island of Celebes is also entirely free from volcanoes ; and there is some reason to believe that the volcanic portion has once formed a separate island. The Malay Peninsula is also non-volcanic.

The first and most obvious division of the Archipelago would therefore be into quiescent and volcanic regions, and it might, perhaps, be expected that such a division would correspond to some differences in the character of the vegetation and the forms of life. This is the case, however, to a very limited extent ; and we shall presently see that, although this development of subterranean fires is on so vast a scale, has piled up chains of mountains ten or twelve thousand feet high, has broken up continents and raised up islands from the ocean, yet it has all the character of a recent action, which has not yet succeeded in obliterating the traces of a more ancient distribution of land and water.

Contrasts of Vegetation. — Placed immediately upon the Equator and surrounded by extensive oceans, it is not surprising that the various islands of the Archipelago should be almost always clothed with a forest vegetation from the level of the sea to the summits of the loftiest mountains. This is the general rule. Sumatra, Xew Guinea, Borneo, the Philippines and the Moluccas, and the uncultivated parts of Java and Celebes, are all forest countries, except a few small and\ unimportant tracts, due perhaps, in some cases, to ancient cultivation or accidental fires. To this, however, there is one important exception in the island of Timor and all the smaller islands around it, in which there is absolutely no forest such as exists in the other islands, and this character extends in a lesser degree to Flores, Sumbawa, Lombock, and Bali.

In Timor the most common trees are Eucalypti of several species', so characteristic of Australia, with sandal- wood, acacia, and other sorts in less abundance. These are scattered over the country more or less thickly, but never so as to deserve the name of a forest. Coarse and scanty grasses grow beneath them on the more barren hills, and a luxuriant herbage in the moister localities. In the islands between Timor and Java there is often a more thickly-wooded country, abounding in thorny and prickly trees. These seldom reach any great height, and during the force of the dry season they almost completely lose their leaves, allowing the ground beneath them to be parched up, and contrasting strongly with the damp, gloomy, ever-verdant forests of the other islands. This peculiar character, which extends in a less degree to the southern peninsula of Celebes and the east end of Java, is most probably owing to the proximity of Australia. The south-east monsoon, which lasts for about two-thirds of the year (from March to ]N"ovember), blowing over the northern parts of that country, produces a degree of heat and dryness which assimilates the vegetation and physical aspect of the adjacent islands to its own. A little further eastward, in Timor-laut and the Ke Islands, a moister climate prevails, the south-east winds blowing from the Pacific through Torres Straits and over the damp forests of I^ew Guinea, and as a consequence every rocky islet is clothed with verdure to its very summit. Further west again, as the same dry winds blow over a wider and wider extent of ocean, they have time to absorb fresh moisture, and we accordingly find the island of Java possessing a less and less arid climate, till in the extreme west near Batavia rain occurs more or less all the year round, and the mountains are everywhere clothed with forests of unexampled luxuriance.