patches of forest, which were delightfully cool and shady by contrast
with the bare open country we had to walk over to reach them. The
vegetation was most luxuriant, comprising enormous forest trees, as well
as a variety of ferns, caladiums, and other undergrowth, and abundance
of climbing rattan palms. Insects were exceedingly abundant and very
interesting, and every day furnished scores of new and curious forms.
In about two months I obtained no less than 700 species of beetles,
a large proportion of which were quite new, and among them were 130
distinct kinds of the elegant Longicorns (Cerambycidae), so much
esteemed by collectors. Almost all these were collected in one patch of
jungle, not more than a square mile in extent, and in all my subsequent
travels in the East I rarely if ever met with so productive a spot. This
exceeding productiveness was due in part no doubt to some favourable
conditions in the soil, climate, and vegetation, and to the season being
very bright and sunny, with sufficient showers to keep everything
fresh. But it was also in a great measure dependent, I feel sure, on
the labours of the Chinese wood-cutters. They had been at work here for
several years, and during all that time had furnished a continual supply
of dry and dead and decaying leaves and bark, together with abundance of
wood and sawdust, for the nourishment of insects and their larvae. This
had led to the assemblage of a great variety of species in a limited
space, and I was the first naturalist who had come to reap the harvest
they had prepared. In the same place, and during my walks in other
directions, I obtained a fair collection of butterflies and of other
orders of insects, so that on the whole I was quite satisfied with
these--my first attempts to gain a knowledge of the Natural History of
the Malay Archipelago.
CHAPTER III. MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR.
(JULY TO SEPTEMBER, 1854.)
BIRDS and most other kinds of animals being scarce at Singapore, I
left it in July for Malacca, where I spent more than two months in the
interior, and made an excursion to Mount Ophir. The old and picturesque
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