Ceram, called Ruatan, which it was necessary to cross
It was both deep and rapid. The baggage was first taken
over, parcel by parcel, on the men’s heads, the water
reaching nearly up to their armpits, and then two men
returned to assist me. The water was above my waist,
and so strong that I should certainly have been carried off
my feet had I attempted to cross alone; and it was a
matter of astonishment to me how the men could give
me any assistance, since I found the greatest difficulty in
getting my foot down again when I had once moved it
off the bottom. The greater strength and grasping power
of their feet, from going always barefoot, no doubt gave
them a surer footing in the rapid water.
After well wringing out our wet clothes and putting
them on, we again proceeded along a similar narrow
forest track as before, choked with rotten leaves
and dead trees, and in the more open parts overgrown
with tangled vegetation. Another hour brought us to a
smaller stream flowing in a wide gravelly bed, up which
our road lay. Here we stayed half an hour to breakfast,
and then went on, continually crossing the stream, or|
walking on its stony and gravelly banks, till about noon,
when it became rocky and enclosed by low hills. A little
further we entered a regular mountain-gorge, and had to
clamber over rocks, and every moment cross and recross
the water, or take short cuts through the forest. This was
[fatiguing work ; and about three in the afternoon, the sky
L in g overcast, and thunder in the mountains indicating
Ian approaching storm, we had to look out for a camping
Lace, and soon after reached one of Mr. Rosenberg’s old
[ones. The skeleton of his little sleeping-hut remained,
Lnd my men cut leaves and made a hasty roof just as the
Lain commenced. The baggage was covered over with
leaves, and the men sheltered themselves as they could till
the storm was over, by which time a flood came down the
river, which effectually stopped our further march, even
I had we wished to proceed. We then lighted fires; I made
Isome coffee, and my men roasted their fish and plantains,
and as soon as it was dark, we made ourselves comfortable
¡for the night.
Starting at six the next morning, we had three hours of
the same kind of walking, during which we crossed the
[river at least thirty or forty times, the water being generally
knee-deep. This brought us to a place where the road
|left the stream, and here we stopped to breakfast. We
then had a long walk over the mountain, by a tolerable
[path, which reached an elevation of about fifteen hundred
¡feet abov* the sea. Here I noticed one of the smallest
and most elegant tree ferns I had ever seen, the stem
[being scarcely thicker than my thumb, yet reaching a
height of fifteen or twenty feet. I also caught a new
butterfly of the genus Pieris, and a magnificent female
G 2