disappointed. Beetles became much more numerous, and under a thick bed
of leaves that had accumulated on some rocks by the side of a forest
stream, I found an abundance of Carabidae, a family generally scarce in
the tropics. The butterflies, however, disappeared. Two of my servants
were attacked with fever, dysentery, and swelled feet, just at the time
that the third had left me, and for some days they both lay groaning in
the house. When they got a little better I was attacked myself, and as
my stores were nearly finished and everything was getting very damp,
I was obliged to prepare for my return to Macassar, especially as the
strong westerly winds would render the passage in a small open boat
disagreeable, if not dangerous.
Since the rains began, numbers of huge millipedes, as thick as one's
finger and eight or ten inches long, crawled about everywhere--in the
paths, on trees, about the house--and one morning when I got up I even
found one in my bed! They were generally of a dull lead colour or of
a deep brick red, and were very nasty-looking things to be coming
everywhere in one's way, although quite harmless. Snakes too began to
show themselves. I killed two of a very abundant species--big-headed,
and of a bright green colour, which lie coiled up on leaves and shrubs
and can scarcely be seen until one is close upon them. Brown snakes got
into my net while beating among dead leaves for insects, and made me
rather cautious about inserting my hand until I knew what kind of game I
had captured. The fields and meadows which had been parched and sterile,
now became suddenly covered with fine long grass; the river-bed where
I had so many times walked over burning rocks, was now a deep and rapid
stream; and numbers of herbaceous plants and shrubs were everywhere
springing up and bursting into flower. I found plenty of new insects,
and if I had had a good, roomy, water-and-wind-proof house, I should
perhaps have stayed during the wet season, as I feel sure many things
can then be obtained which are to be found at no other time. With my
summer hut, however, this was impossible. During the heavy rains a fine
drizzly mist penetrated into every part of it, and I began to have the
greatest difficulty in keeping my specimens dry.
Early in November I returned to Macassar, and having packed up my
collections, started in the Dutch mail steamer for Amboyna and Ternate.
Leaving this part of my journey for the present, I will in the next
CHAPTER conclude my account of Celebes, by describing the extreme
northern part of the island which I visited two years later.
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