. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. e, by whose curious noteshe can convey signal sounds to a long distance; but by theunaided voice they are able, in a series of what seem onlydemoniacal howls, to hold long dialogues from peak to peakacross wide valleys. It was in this way doubtless that ourmen were nearly done out of their supper, which according tothe laws of their kingdom the officer was within his right indemanding. Eeaching about five oclock a little plateau, known asErlura, at 3500 feet above the sea, where we
. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. e, by whose curious noteshe can convey signal sounds to a long distance; but by theunaided voice they are able, in a series of what seem onlydemoniacal howls, to hold long dialogues from peak to peakacross wide valleys. It was in this way doubtless that ourmen were nearly done out of their supper, which according tothe laws of their kingdom the officer was within his right indemanding. Eeaching about five oclock a little plateau, known asErlura, at 3500 feet above the sea, where we found a well andseveral tall gum-trees with their stems hollowed out by fire,we camped for the night. After seeing the baggage stowedinside the trees, I occupied the time till dark in assiduouslycollecting the herbaceous plants which dotted the ground. The IN TIMOR. 429 district being notorious for robbers, we picketed the horsesat dark within a quadrangle of fires—not an unnecessary pre-caution ; for in the middle of the night we heard very sus-picious low whistle-calls several times repeated, which gave. SIGNALLING PIPE. vigour to the Alerto! of our guard. The Timorese are veryclever horsestealers, I understand, and, by abducting themoff from the very side of their owners, the astuter thievesamong them have obtained the reputation of being Swangies,who have the power of making their bodies 430 A NATURALISTS WANDERINGS Next morning- at sunrise, after I had taken a round ofbearings, we started in a south-easterly direction, continuallyclimbing as on the previous day, along hogs-back ridges andround precipitous gorges. On the bare red clay of MountTehula, at 4200 feet, I gathered, with great delight, a newspecies of Epaeridaceas a heath-like plant, which formed inter-rupted shrubberies all over its summit. From Tehula by ashallow saddle, we reached Kelehoko, 4600 feet, where un-horsing to rest for an hour, I made a most interesting collec-tion of plants, many of t
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