radise he could get, and to shoot and skin all other rare or new
birds; and Lahagi was to collect insects, which I hoped might be more
abundant than at Dorey. When I recommenced my daily walks in search
of insects, I found a great change in the neighbourhood, and one very
agreeable to me. All the time I had been laid up the ship's crew and the
Javanese soldiers who had been brought in a tender (a sailing ship
which had arrived soon after the Etna), had been employed cutting down,
sawing, and splitting large trees for firewood, to enable the steamer to
get back to Amboyna if the coal-ship did not return; and they had also
cleared a number of wide, straight paths through the forest in various
directions, greatly to the astonishment of the natives, who could not
make out what it all meant. I had now a variety of walks, and a good
deal of dead wood on which to search for insects; but notwithstanding
these advantages, they were not nearly so plentiful as I had found them
at Sarawak, or Amboyna, or Batchian, confirming my opinion that Dorey
was not a good locality. It is quite probable, however, that at a
station a few miles in the interior, away from the recently elevated
coralline rocks and the influence of the sea air, a much more abundant
harvest might be obtained.

One afternoon I went on board the steamer to return the captain's visit,
and was shown some very nice sketches (by one of the lieutenants), made
on the south coast, and also at the Arfak mountain, to which they had
made an excursion. From these and the captain's description, it appeared
that the people of Arfak were similar to those of Dorey, and I could
hear nothing of the straight-haired race which Lesson says inhabits the
interior, but which no one has ever seen, and the account of which I
suspect has originated in some mistake. The captain told me he had made
a detailed survey of part of the south coast, and if the coal arrived
should go away at once to Humboldt Pay, in longitude 141 deg. east, which is
the line up to which the Dutch claim New Guinea. On board the tender
I found a brother naturalist, a German named Rosenberg, who was
draughtsman to the surveying staff. He had brought two men with him to
shoot and skin birds, and had been able to purchase a few rare skins
from the natives. Among these was a pair of the superb Paradise Pie
(Astrapia nigra) in tolerable preservation. They were brought from the
island of Jobie, which may be its native country,