divided among them proportionately. The coffee is taken to Government
stores established at central places over the whole country, and is paid
for at a low fixed price. Out of this a certain percentage goes to the
chiefs and majors, and the remainder is divided among the inhabitants.
This system works very well, and I believe is at present far better for
the people than free-trade would be. There are also large rice-fields,
and in this little village of seventy houses, I was informed that a
hundred pounds' worth of rice was sold annually.
I had a small house at the very end of the village, almost hanging over
the precipitous slope down to the stream, and with a splendid view from
the verandah. The thermometer in the morning often stood at 62 and
never rose so high as 80 , so that with the thin clothing used in the
tropical plains we were always cool and sometimes positively cold, while
the spout of water where I went daily for my bath had quite an icy
feel. Although I enjoyed myself very much among these fine mountains
and forests, I was somewhat disappointed as to my collections. There
was hardly any perceptible difference between the animal life in this
temperate region and in the torrid plains below, and what difference
did exist was in most respects disadvantageous to me. There seemed to be
nothing absolutely peculiar to this elevation. Birds and quadrupeds were
less plentiful, but of the same species. In insects there seemed to be
more difference. The curious beetles of the family Cleridae, which are
found chiefly on bark and rotten wood, were finer than I have seen them
elsewhere. The beautiful Longicorns were scarcer than usual, and the few
butterflies were all of tropical species. One of these, Papilio blumei,
of which I obtained a few specimens only, is among the most magnificent
I have ever seen. It is a green and gold swallow-tail, with azure-blue
and spoon-shaped tails, and was often seen flying about the village when
the sun shone, but in a very shattered condition. The great amount
of wet and cloudy weather was a great drawback all the time I was at
Rurukan.
Even in the vegetation there is very little to indicate elevation.
The trees are more covered with lichens and mosses, and the ferns and
tree-ferns are finer and more luxuriant than I had been accustomed to
seeing on the low grounds, both probably attributable to the almost
perpetual moisture that here prevails. Abundance of a tasteless
raspberry, with blue and yellow compositae, have somewhat of a temperate
aspect; and minute ferns and Orchideae, with dwarf Begonias on the
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