clothes-boxes, it was not much trouble for the owners to move into the house of
some relatives, and thus obtain a few silver rupees very easily. Every foot of
ground between the homes throughout the village is crammed with fruit trees, so
that the sun and air have no chance of penetrating. This must be very cool and
pleasant in the dry season, but makes it damp and unhealthy at other times of the
year. Unfortunately I had come two months too soon, for the rains were not yet
over, and mud and water were the prominent features of the country.
About a mile behind and to the east of the village the hills commence, but they
are very barren, being covered with scanty coarse grass and scattered trees of the
Melaleuca cajuputi, from the leaves of which the celebrated cajeput oil is made.
Such districts are absolutely destitute of interest for the zoologist. A few miles
further on rose higher mountains, apparently well covered with forest, but they
were entirely uninhabited and trackless, and practically inaccessible to a traveller
with limited time and means. It became evident, therefore, that I must leave
Cajeli for some better collecting ground, and finding a man who was going a few
miles eastward to a village on the coast where he said there were hills and forest,
I sent my boy Ali with him to explore and report on the capabilities of the
district. At the same time I arranged to go myself on a little excursion up a river
which flows into the bay about five miles north of the town, to a village of the
Alfuros, or indigenes, where I thought I might perhaps find a good collecting
ground.
The Rajah of Cajeli, a good-tempered old man, offered to accompany me, as
the village was under his government; and we started one morning early, in a
long narrow boat with eight rowers. In about two hours we entered the river, and
commenced our inland journey against a very powerful current. The stream was
about a hundred yards wide, and was generally bordered with high grass, and
occasionally bushes and palm-trees. The country round was flat and more or less
swampy, with scattered trees and shrubs. At every bend we crossed the river to
avoid the strength of the current, and arrived at our landing-place about four
o'clock in a torrent of rain. Here we waited for an hour, crouching under a leaky
mat till the Alfuros arrived who had been sent for from the village to carry my
baggage, when we set off along a path of whose extreme muddiness I had been
warned before starting.
I turned up my trousers as high as possible, grasped a stoat stick to prevent
awkward falls, and then boldly plunged into the first mud-hole, which was
immediately succeeded by another and another. The marl or mud and water was
knee-deep with little intervals of firmer ground between, making progression
exceedingly difficult. The path was bordered with high rigid grass, brewing in