desired voyage to New Guinea had realized none of my expectations. Instead of being far
better than the Aru Islands it was in almost everything much worse. Instead of producing
several of the rarer paradise birds, I had not even seen one of them, and had not obtained
even one superlatively fine bird or insect. I could not deny, however, that Dorey was very
rich in ants.Wallace’s attempt to find birds of paradise near the coast of New Guinea failed
because they were mainly found in the rugged Arfak Mountains, south of Dorey and
several weeks journey into the wild interior. The skins that had found their way to
Europe for naturalists to examine had been collected by the savage tribes of the interior
and then traded from village to village until they reached the coast. Wallace wrote:
It seems as if Nature had taken precautions that these her choicest treasures should not be
made too common, and thus be undervalued ... The country is all rocky and mountainous,
covered everywhere with dense forests, offering in its swamps and precipices and serrated
ridges an almost impossible barrier to the unknown interior; and the people are dangerous
savages, in the very lowest stages of barbarism. In such a country, and among such people,
are found these wonderful productions of Nature, the birds of paradise, whose exquisite
beauty of form and colour and strange developments of plumage are calculated to excite the
wonder and admiration of the most civilized and the most intellectual of mankind.Two months after his return to Ternate, Wallace sailed south past the line of
volcanoes that form the islands of Tidore, Motir and Makian to the island of Bacian
or Bacan which is the southernmost and largest of the seven Spice Islands that lie
off the west coast of the main island of Gilolo or Halmahera. This island has some
large mountains, numerous rivers or streams, and the forest appeared to be dense and
luxuriant. Wallace hoped there would be a corresponding richness in birds and insects
and during his first walk in the forest Wallace spotted a butterfly that he recognized
as the female of the new species of Ornithoptera, the magnificent golden birdwing.
He hoped to find the male which is extremely beautiful and the excitement when he
succeeded was intense:
The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable and none but a naturalist can
understand the intense excitement I experienced when at length I captured it. On taking it
out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat violently, the blood
rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than I have done when in apprehension
of immediate death. I had a headache the rest of the day, so great was the excitement by
what will appear to most people a very inadequate cause.168 Where Australia Collides with Asia
http://www.ebook3000.com