ider than usual, and allowed a few gleams of sunshine to penetrate.
Here there were several handsome butterflies flying about, the finest of
which, however, escaped me, and I never saw it again during my stay. In
the two days and a half which we remained here, I wandered almost all
day up and down the stream, searching after butterflies, of which I got,
in all, fifty or sixty specimens, with several species quite new to
me. There were many others which I saw only once, and did not capture,
causing me to regret that there was no village in these interior valleys
where I could stay a month. In the early part of each morning I went out
with my gun in search of birds, and two of my men were out almost all
day after deer; but we were all equally unsuccessful, getting absolutely
nothing the whole time we were in the forest. The only good bird seen
was the fine Amboyna lory, but these were always too high to shoot;
besides this, the great Moluccan hornbill, which I did not want, was
almost the only bird met with. I saw not a single ground-thrush, or
kingfisher, or pigeon; and, in fact, have never been in a forest so
utterly desert of animal life as this appeared to be. Even in all other
groups of insects, except butterflies, there was the same poverty. I
bad hoped to find some rare tiger beetles, as I had done in similar
situations in Celebes; but, though I searched closely in forest,
river-bed, and mountain-brook, I could find nothing but the two common
Amboyna species. Other beetles there were absolutely none.

The constant walking in water, and over rocks and pebbles, quite
destroyed the two pair of shoes I brought with me, so that, on my
return, they actually fell to pieces, and the last day I had to walk
in my stockings very painfully, and reached home quite lame. On our way
back from Makariki, as on our way there, we had storm and rain at sea,
and we arrived at Awaiya late in the evening, with all our baggage
drenched, and ourselves thoroughly uncomfortable. All the time I had
been in Ceram I had suffered much from the irritating bites of an
invisible acarus, which is worse than mosquitoes, ants, and every other
pest, because it is impossible to guard against them. This last journey
in the forest left me covered from head to foot with inflamed lumps,
which, after my return to Amboyna, produced a serious disease, confining
me to the house for nearly two months, a not very pleasant memento of my
first visit to Ceram, which