ouple of boys as guides. It was exceedingly hot and
dry, no rain having fallen for two months. When we reached an elevation
of about two hundred feet, the coralline rock which fringes the
shore was succeeded by a hard crystalline rock, a kind of metamorphic
sandstone. This would indicate flat there had been a recent elevation of
more than two hundred feet, which had still more recently clanged into
a movement of subsidence. The hill was very rugged, but among dry sticks
and fallen trees I found some good insects, mostly of forms and species
I was already acquainted with from Ternate and Gilolo. Finding no good
paths I returned, and explored the lower ground eastward of the village,
passing through a long range of plantain and tobacco grounds, encumbered
with felled and burnt logs, on which I found quantities of beetles of
the family Buprestidae of six different species, one of which was new
to me. I then reached a path in the swampy forest where I hoped to find
some butterflies, but was disappointed. Being now pretty well exhausted
by the intense heat, I thought it wise to return and reserve further
exploration for the next day.

When I sat down in the afternoon to arrange my insects, the louse
was surrounded by men, women, and children, lost in amazement at my
unaccountable proceedings; and when, after pinning out the specimens, I
proceeded to write the name of the place on small circular tickets, and
attach one to each, even the old Kapala, the Mahometan priest, and some
Malay traders could not repress signs of astonishment. If they had
known a little more about the ways and opinions of white men, they
would probably have looked upon me as a fool or a madman, but in their
ignorance they accepted my operations as worthy of all respect, although
utterly beyond their comprehension.

The next day (October 16th) I went beyond the swamp, and found a place
where a new clearing was being made in the virgin forest. It was a long
and hot walk, and the search among the fallen trunks and branches was
very fatiguing, but I was rewarded by obtaining about seventy distinct
species of beetles, of which at least a dozen were new to me, and many
others rare and interesting. I have never in my life seen beetles so
abundant as they were on this spot. Some dozen species of good-sized
golden Buprestidae, green rose-chafers (Lomaptera), and long-horned
weevils (Anthribidae), were so abundant that they rose up in swarms as I
walked along, f