The Malay Archipelago Volume 1

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The wild pig seems to be of a species peculiar to the island; but
a much more curious animal of this family is the Babirusa or Pig-
deer; so named by the Malays from its long and slender legs, and
curved tusks resembling horns. This extraordinary creature
resembles a pig in general appearance, but it does not dig with
its snout, as it feeds on fallen fruits. The tusks of the lower
jaw are very long and sharp, but the upper ones instead of
growing downwards in the usual way are completely reversed,
growing upwards out of bony sockets through the skin on each side
of the snout, curving backwards to near the eyes, and in old
animals often reaching eight or ten inches in length. It is
difficult to understand what can be the use of these
extraordinary horn-like teeth. Some of the old writers supposed
that they served as hooks, by which the creature could rest its
head on a branch. But the way in which they usually diverge just
over and in front of the eye has suggested the more probable
idea, that they serve to guard these organs from thorns and
spines, while hunting for fallen fruits among the tangled
thickets of rattans and other spiny plants. Even this, however,
is not satisfactory, for the female, who must seek her food in
the same way, does not possess them. I should be inclined to
believe rather, that these tusks were once useful, and were then
worn down as fast as they grew; but that changed conditions of
life have rendered them unnecessary, and they now develop into a
monstrous form, just as the incisors of the Beaver or Rabbit will
go on growing, if the opposite teeth do not wear them away. In
old animals they reach an enormous size, and are generally broken
off as if by fighting.

Here again we have a resemblance to the Wart-hogs of Africa,
whose upper canines grow outwards and curve up so as to form a
transition from the usual mode of growth to that of the Babirusa.
In other respects there seems no affinity between these animals,
and the Babirusa stands completely isolated, having no
resemblance to the pigs of any other part of the world. It is
found all over Celebes and in the Sula islands, and also in
Bourn, the only spot beyond the Celebes group to which it
extends; and which island also shows some affinity to the Sula
islands in its birds, indicating perhaps, a closer connection
between them at some former period than now exists.

The other terrestrial mammals of Celebes are five species of
squirrels, which are all distinct from those of Java and Borneo,
and mark the furthest eastward range of the genus in the tropics;
and two of Eastern opossums (Cuscus), which are different from
those of the Moluccas, and mark the furthest westward extension
of this genus and of the Marsupial order. Thus we see that the
Mammalia of Celebes are no less individual and remarkable than
the birds, since three of the largest and most interesting
species have no near allies in surrounding countries, but seem
vaguely to indicate a relation to the African continent.

Many groups of insects appear to be especially subject to local
influences, their forms and colours changing with each change of
conditions, or even with a change of locality where the
conditions seem almost identical. We should therefore anticipate
that the individuality manifested in the higher animals would be
still more prominent in these creatures with less stable
organisms. On the other hand, however, we have to consider that
the dispersion and migration of insects is much more easily
effected than that of mammals or even of birds. They are much
more likely to be carried away by violent winds; their eggs may
be carried on leaves either by storms of wind or by floating
trees, and their larvae and pupae, often buried in trunks of
trees or enclosed in waterproof cocoons, may be floated for days
or weeks uninjured over the ocean. These facilities of
distribution tend to assimilate the productions of adjacent lands
in two ways: first, by direct mutual interchange of species; and
secondly, by repeated immigrations of fresh individuals of a
species common to other islands, which by intercrossing, tend to
obliterate the changes of form and colour, which differences of
conditions might otherwise produce. Bearing these facts in mind,
we shall find that the individuality of the insects of Celebes is
even greater than we have any reason to expect.

For the purpose of insuring accuracy in comparisons with other
islands, I shall confine myself to those groups which are best
known, or which I have myself carefully studied. Beginning with
the Papilionidae or Swallow-tailed butterflies, Celebes possesses
24 species, of which the large number of 18 are not found in any
other island. If we compare this with Borneo, which out of 29
species has only two not found elsewhere, the difference is as
striking as anything can be. In the family of the Pieridae, or
white butterflies, the difference is not quite so great, owing
perhaps to the more wandering habits of the group; but it is
still very remarkable. Out of 30 species inhabiting Celebes, 19
are peculiar, while Java (from which more species are known than
from Sumatra or Borneo), out of 37 species, has only 13 peculiar.
The Danaidae are large, but weak-flying butterflies, which
frequent forests and gardens, and are plainly but often very
richly coloured. Of these my own collection contains 16 species
from Celebes and 15 from Borneo; but whereas no less than 14 are
confined to the former island, only two are peculiar to the
latter. The Nymphalidae are a very extensive group, of generally
strong-winged and very bright-coloured butterflies, very abundant
in the tropics, and represented in our own country by our
Fritillaries, our Vanessas, and our Purple-emperor. Some months
ago I drew up a list of the Eastern species of this group,
including all the new ones discovered by myself, and arrived at
the following comparative results:--

Species of Species peculiar to Percentage
Nymphalidae. each island. of peculiar Species.

Java . . . . . 70 . . . . . . 23 . . . . . . . . . . 33
Borneo . . . . 52 . . . . . . 15 . . . . . . . . . . 29
Celebes . . . 48 . . . . . . 35 . . . . . . . . . . 73

The Coleoptera are so extensive that few of the groups have yet
been carefully worked out. I will therefore refer to one only,
which I have myself recently studied--the Cetoniadae or Rose-
chafers--a group of beetles which, owing to their extreme
beauty, have been much sought after. From Java 37 species of
these insects are known, and from Celebes only 30; yet only 13,
or 35 percent, are peculiar to the former island, and 19, or 63
percent, to the latter.

The result of these comparisons is, that although Celebes is a
single, large island with only a few smaller ones closely grouped
around it, we must really consider it as forming one of the great
divisions of the Archipelago, equal in rank and importance to the
whole of the Moluccan or Philippine groups, to the Papuan
islands, or to the Indo-Malay islands (Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and
the Malay peninsula). Taking those families of insects and birds
which are best known, the following table shows the comparison of
Celebes with the other groups of islands:--

PAPILIONIDAE AND HAWKS, PARROTS, AND
PERIDAE PIGEONS.
Percent of peculiar Percent of peculiar
Species. Species.
Indo-Malay region . . . . 56 . . . . . . . . . . 54
Philippine group . . . . 66 . . . . . . . . . . 73
Celebes . . . . . . . . . 69 . . . . . . . . . . 60
Moluccan group . . . . . 52 . . . . . . . . . . 62
Timor group . . . . . . . 42 . . . . . . . . . . 47
Papuan group . . . . . . 64 . . . . . . . . . . 74

These large and well-known families well represent the general
character of the zoology of Celebes; and they show that this
island is really one of the most isolated portions of the
Archipelago, although situated in its very centre.

But the insects of Celebes present us with other phenomena more
curious and more difficult to explain than their striking
individuality. The butterflies of that island are in many cases
characterised by a peculiarity of outline, which distinguishes
them at a glance from those of any other part of the world. It is
most strongly manifested in the Papilios and the Pieridae, and
consists in the forewings being either strongly curved or
abruptly bent near the base, or in the extremity being elongated
and often somewhat hooked. Out of the 14 species of Papilio in
Celebes, 13 exhibit this peculiarity in a greater or less degree,
when compared with the most nearly allied species of the
surrounding islands. Ten species of Pieridae have the same
character, and in four or five of the Nymphalidae it is also very
distinctly marked. In almost every case, the species found in
Celebes are much larger than thane of the islands westward, and
at least equal to those of the Moluccas, or even larger. The
difference of form is, however, the most remarkable feature, as it
is altogether a new thing for a whole set of species in one
country to differ in exactly the same way from the corresponding
sets in all the surrounding countries; and it is so well marked,
that without looking at the details of colouring, most Celebes
Papilios and many Pieridae, can be at once distinguished from
those of other islands by their form alone.

The outside figure of each pair here given, shows the exact size
and form of the fore-wing in a butterfly of Celebes, while the
inner one represents the most closely allied species from one of
the adjacent islands. Figure 1 shows the strongly curved margin
of the Celebes species, Papilio gigon, compared with the much
straighter margin of Papilio demolion from Singapore and Java.
Figure 2 shows the abrupt bend over the base of the wing in
Papilio miletus of Celebes, compared with the slight curvature in
the common Papilio sarpedon, which has almost exactly the same
form from India to New Guinea and Australia. Figure 3 shows the
elongated wing of Tachyris zarinda, a native of Celebes, compared
with the much shorter wing of Tachyris nero, a very closely
allied species found in all the western islands. The difference
of form is in each case sufficiently obvious, but when the
insects themselves are compared, it is much more striking than in
these partial outlines.

From the analogy of birds, we should suppose that the pointed
wing gave increased rapidity of flight, since it is a character
of terns, swallows, falcons, and of the swift-flying pigeons. A
short and rounded wing, on the other hand, always accompanies a
more feeble or more laborious flight, and one much less under
command. We might suppose, therefore, that the butterflies which
possess this peculiar form were better able to escape pursuit.
But there seems no unusual abundance of insectivorous birds to
render this necessary; and as we cannot believe that such a
curious peculiarity is without meaning, it seems probable that it
is the result of a former condition of things, when the island
possessed a much richer fauna, the relics of which we see in the
isolated birds and Mammalia now inhabiting it; and when the
abundance of insectivorous creatures rendered some unusual means
of escape a necessity for the large-winged and showy butterflies.
It is some confirmation of this view, that neither the very small
nor the very obscurely coloured groups of butterflies have
elongated wings, nor is any modification perceptible in those
strong-winged groups which already possess great strength and
rapidity of flight. These were already sufficiently protected
from their enemies, and did not require increased power of
escaping from them. It is not at all clear what effect the
peculiar curvature of the wings has in modifying flight.

Another curious feature in the zoology of Celebes is also worthy
of attention. I allude to the absence of several groups which are
found on both sides of it, in the Indo-Malay islands as well as
in the Moluccas; and which thus seem to be unable, from some
unknown cause, to obtain a footing in the intervening island. In
Birds we have the two families of Podargidae and Laniadae, which
range over the whole Archipelago and into Australia, and which
yet have no representative in Celebes. The genera Ceyx among
Kingfishers, Criniger among Thrushes, Rhipidura among
Flycatchers, Calornis among Starlings, and Erythrura among
Finches, are all found in the Moluccas as well as in Borneo and
Java--but not a single species belonging to any one of them is
found in Celebes. Among insects, the large genus of Rose-chafers,
Lomaptera, is found in every country and island between India and
New Guinea, except Celebes. This unexpected absence of many
groups, from one limited district in the very centre of their
area of distribution, is a phenomenon not altogether unique, but,
I believe, nowhere so well marked as in this case; and it
certainly adds considerably to the strange character of this
remarkable island.

The anomalies and eccentricities in the natural history of
Celebes which I have endeavoured to sketch in this chapter, all
point to an origin in a remote antiquity. The history of extinct
animals teaches us that their distribution in time and in space
are strikingly similar. The rule is, that just as the productions
of adjacent areas usually resemble each other closely, so do the
productions of successive periods in the same area; and as the
productions of remote areas generally differ widely, so do the
productions of the same area at remote epochs. We are therefore
led irresistibly to the conclusion, that change of species, still
more of generic and of family form, is a matter of time. But time
may have led to a change of species in one country, while in
another the forms have been more permanent, or the change may
have gone on at an equal rate but in a different manner in both.
In either case, the amount of individuality in the productions of
a district will be to some extent a measure of the time that a
district has been isolated from those that surround it. Judged by
this standard, Celebes must be one of the oldest parts of the
Archipelago. It probably dates from a period not only anterior to
that when Borneo, Java, and Sumatra were separated from the
continent, but from that still more remote epoch when the land
that now constitutes these islands had not risen above the ocean.

Such an antiquity is necessary, to account for the number of
animal forms it possesses, which show no relation to those of
India or Australia, but rather with those of Africa; and we are
led to speculate on the possibility of there having once existed
a continent in the Indian Ocean which might serve as a bridge to
connect these distant countries. Now it is a curious fact, that
the existence of such a land has been already thought necessary,
to account for the distribution of the curious Quadrumana forming
the family of the Lemurs. These have their metropolis in
Madagascar, but are found also in Africa, in Ceylon, in the
peninsula of India, and in the Malay Archipelago as far as
Celebes, which is its furthest eastern limit. Dr. Sclater has
proposed for the hypothetical continent connecting these distant
points, and whose former existence is indicated by the Mascarene
islands and the Maldive coral group, the name of Lemuria. Whether
or not we believe in its existence in the exact form here
indicated, the student of geographical distribution must see in
the extraordinary and isolated productions of Celebes, proof of
the former existence of some continent from whence the ancestors
of these creatures, and of many other intermediate forms, could
have been derived.

In this short sketch of the most striking peculiarities of the
Natural History of Celebes, I have been obliged to enter much
into details that I fear will have been uninteresting to the
general reader, but unless I had done so, my exposition would have
lost much of its force and value. It is by these details alone
that I have been able to prove the unusual features that Celebes
presents to us. Situated in the very midst of an Archipelago, and
closely hemmed in on every side by islands teeming with varied
forms of life, its productions have yet a surprising amount of
individuality. While it is poor in the actual number of its
species, it is yet wonderfully rich in peculiar forms, many of
which are singular or beautiful, and are in some cases absolutely
unique upon the globe. We behold here the curious phenomenon of
groups of insects changing their outline in a similar manner when
compared with those of surrounding islands, suggesting some
common cause which never seems to have acted elsewhere in exactly
the same way. Celebes, therefore, presents us with a most
striking example of the interest that attaches to the study of
the geographical distribution of animals. We can see that their
present distribution upon the globe is the result of all the more
recent changes the earth's surface has undergone; and, by a
careful study of the phenomena, we are sometimes able to deduce
approximately what those past changes must have been in order to
produce the distribution we find to exist. In the comparatively
simple case of the Timor group, we were able to deduce these
changes with some approach to certainty. In the much more
complicated case of Celebes, we can only indicate their general
nature, since we now see the result, not of any single or recent
change only, but of a whole series of the later revolutions which
have resulted in the present distribution of land in the Eastern
Hemisphere.

CHAPTER XIX.

BANDA.

(DECEMBER 1857, MAY 1859, APRIL 1861.)

THE Dutch mail steamer in which I travelled from Macassar to
Banda and Amboyna was a roomy and comfortable vessel, although it
would only go six miles an hour in the finest weather. As there
were but three passengers besides myself, we had abundance of
room, and I was able to enjoy a voyage more than I had ever done
before. The arrangements are somewhat different from those on
board English or Indian steamers. There are no cabin servants, as
every cabin passenger invariably brings his own, and the ship's
stewards attend only to the saloon and the eating department. At
six A.M. a cup of tea or coffee is provided for those who like
it. At seven to eight there is a light breakfast of tea, eggs,
sardines, etc. At ten, Madeira, Gin and bitters are brought on
deck as a whet for the substantial eleven o'clock breakfast,
which differs from a dinner only in the absence of soup. Cups of
tea and coffee are brought around at three P.M.; bitters, etc.
again at five, a good dinner with beer and claret at half-past
six, concluded by tea and coffee at eight. Between whiles, beer
and sodawater are supplied when called for, so there is no lack
of little gastronomical excitements to while away the tedium of a
sea voyage.

Our first stopping place was Coupang, at the west end of the
large island of Timor. We then coasted along that island for
several hundred miles, having always a view of hilly ranges
covered with scanty vegetation, rising ridge behind ridge to the
height of six or seven thousand feet. Turning off towards Banda
we passed Pulo-Cambing, Wetter, and Roma, all of which are
desolate and barren volcanic islands, almost as uninviting as
Aden, and offering a strange contrast to the usual verdure and
luxuriance of the Archipelago. In two days more we reached the
volcanic group of Banda, covered with an unusually dense and
brilliant green vegetation, indicating that we had passed beyond
the range of the hot dry winds from the plains of Central
Australia. Banda is a lovely little spot, its three islands
enclosing a secure harbour from whence no outlet is visible, and
with water so transparent, that living corals and even the
minutest objects are plainly seen on the volcanic sand at a depth
of seven or eight fathoms. The ever smoking volcano rears its
bare cone on one side, while the two larger islands are clothed
with vegetation to the summit of the hills.

Going on shore, I walked up a pretty path which leads to the
highest point of the island on which the town is situated, where
there is a telegraph station and a magnificent view. Below lies
the little town, with its neat red-tiled white houses and the
thatched cottages of the natives, bounded on one side by the old
Portuguese fort. Beyond, about half a mile distant, lies the
larger island in the shape of a horseshoe, formed of a range of
abrupt hills covered with fine forest and nutmeg gardens; while
close opposite the town is the volcano, forming a nearly perfect
cone, the lower part only covered with a light green bushy
vegetation. On its north side the outline is more uneven, and
there is a slight hollow or chasm about one-fifth of the way
down, from which constantly issue two columns of smoke, as well
as a good deal from the rugged surface around and from some spots
nearer the summit. A white efflorescence, probably sulphur, is
thickly spread over the upper part of the mountain, marked by the
narrow black vertical lines of water gullies. The smoke unites as
it rises, and forms a dense cloud, which in calm, damp weather
spreads out into a wide canopy hiding the top of the mountain. At
night and early morning, it often rises up straight and leaves the
whole outline clear.

It is only when actually gazing on an active volcano that one can
fully realize its awfulness and grandeur. Whence comes that
inexhaustible fire whose dense and sulphurous smoke forever
issues from this bare and desolate peak? Whence the mighty forces
that produced that peak, and still from time to time exhibit
themselves in the earthquakes that always occur in the vicinity
of volcanic vents? The knowledge from childhood of the fact that
volcanoes and earthquakes exist, has taken away somewhat of the
strange and exceptional character that really belongs to them.
The inhabitant of most parts of northern Europe sees in the
earth the emblem of stability and repose. His whole life-
experience, and that of all his age and generation, teaches him
that the earth is solid and firm, that its massive rocks may
contain water in abundance, but never fire; and these essential
characteristics of the earth are manifest in every mountain his
country contains. A volcano is a fact opposed to all this mass of
experience, a fact of so awful a character that, if it were the
rule instead of the exception, it would make the earth
uninhabitable a fact so strange and unaccountable that we may be
sure it would not be believed on any human testimony, if
presented to us now for the first time, as a natural phenomenon
happening in a distant country.

The summit of the small island is composed of a highly
crystalline basalt; lower down I found a hard, stratified slatey
sandstone, while on the beach are huge blocks of lava, and
scattered masses of white coralline limestone. The larger island
has coral rock to a height of three or four hundred feet, while
above is lava and basalt. It seems probable, therefore, that this
little group of four islands is the fragment of a larger district
which was perhaps once connected with Ceram, but which was
separated and broken up by the same forces which formed the
volcanic cone. When I visited the larger island on another
occasion, I saw a considerable tract covered with large forest
trees--dead, but still standing. This was a record of the last
great earthquake only two years ago, when the sea broke in over
this part of the island and so flooded it as to destroy the
vegetation on all the lowlands. Almost every year there is an
earthquake here, and at intervals of a few years, very severe
ones which throw down houses and carry ships out of the harbour
bodily into the streets.

Notwithstanding the losses incurred by these terrific
visitations, and the small size and isolated position of these
little islands, they have been and still are of considerable
value to the Dutch Government, as the chief nutmeg-garden in the
world. Almost the whole surface is planted with nutmegs, grown
under the shade of lofty Kanary trees (Kanarium commune). The
light volcanic soil, the shade, and the excessive moisture of
these islands, where it rains more or less every month in the
year, seem exactly to suit the nutmeg-tree, which requires no
manure and scarcely any attention. All the year round flowers and
ripe fruit are to be found, and none of those diseases occur
which under a forced and unnatural system of cultivation have
ruined the nutmeg planters of Singapore and Penang.

Few cultivated plants are more beautiful than nutmeg-trees. They
are handsomely shaped and glossy-leaved, growing to the height of
twenty or thirty feet, and bearing small yellowish flowers. The
fruit is the size and colour of a peach, but rather oval. It is
of a tough fleshy consistence, but when ripe splits open, and
shows the dark-brown nut within, covered with the crimson mace,
and is then a most beautiful object. Within the thin, hard shell
of the nut is the seed, which is the nutmeg of commerce. The nuts
are eaten by the large pigeons of Banda, which digest the mace,
but cast up the nut with its seed uninjured.

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