and thus obtain a few silver rupees very easily. Every
foot of ground between the bouses throughout the village
is crammed with fruit trees, so that the sun and air have
no chance of penetrating. This must he very cool and
pleasant in the dry season, but makes it damp and unhealthy
at other times of the year. Unfortunately I had
come two months too soon, for the rains were not yet over,
and mud and water were the prominent features of the
country.
About a mile behind and to the east of the village the
hills commence, but they are very barren, being covered
with scanty coarse grass and scattered trees of the
Melaleuca cajuputi, from the leaves of which the celebrated
cajeput oil is made. Such districts are absolutely
destitute of interest for the zoologist. A few miles further
on rose higher mountains, apparently well covered with
forest, but they were entirely uninhabited and trackless,
and practically inaccessible to a traveller with limited
time and means. It became evident, therefore, that I
must leave Cajeli for some better collecting ground, and
finding a man who was going a few miles eastward to a
village on the coast where he said there were hills and
forest, I sent my boy Ali with him to explore and report
on the capabilities of the district. At the same time I
arranged to go myself on a little excursion up a river
which flows into the bay about five miles north of the
town, to a village of the Alfuros, or indigenes, where I
I thought I might perhaps find a good collecting ground.
The Eajah of Cajeli, a good-tempered old man, offered to
accompany me, as the village was under his government .;
j and we started one morning early, in a long narrow boat
with eight rowers. In about two hours we entered the
river, and commenced our inland journey against a very
| powerful current. The stream was about a hundred yards
wide, and was generally bordered with high grass, and
occasionally bushes and palm-trees. The country round
I was flat and more or less swampy, with scattered trees and
: shrubs. At every bend we crossed the river to avoid the
strength of the current, and arrived at our landing-
place about four o’clock, in a torrent of rain. Here we
waited for an hour, crouching under a leaky mat till
the Alfuros arrived who had been sent for from the
I village to carry my baggage, when we set off along a
path of whose extreme muddiness I had been warned
before starting.
I turned up my trousers as high as possible, grasped a
I stout stick to prevent awkward falls, and then boldly
plunged into the first mud-hole, which was immediately
j succeeded by another and another. The mud or mud and
water was knee-deep, with little intervals of firmer ground
between, making progression exceedingly difficult. The
path was bordered with high rigid grass, growing in dense