Viewing page 107 of 180

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

- 106 -

thousand eggs. When their boat is full of eggs they sail to one of the following places: Samarinda, Tandjong, Redeb, Tandjong Sei-lor, Toli Toli, Dongala, Kampong Bharn, or Makesser. A good load of eggs is about 100,000 and they bring from five to ten guilders a thousand; places nearby such as Tandjong Redeb and Kampong Bharn, they are cheaper, as these places can be reached ordinarily within four or five days.
        The island has never been cleared and is covered with open forest, except the northeast end which runs to a narrow point; here there are only a few small trees and both these trees and the ground are over-run with vines of two or three varieties; one is a morning-glory, which looks the same as the ones at home. Most of the large trees are of the variety known to the natives as "nunuk" and bear a fruit which is orange in color and about the size of a small marble. A great number of birds as well as other animals are very fond of this fruit; probably the pigeons here eat nothing else.
        I had finished hunting for birds and just about to go aboard the prahn at dark when a Pteropus bat lit in a tree at the water's edge. I got this and one other, the only ones I saw. The natives say that at times there are many of these bats, when the moon is full. These bats and rats are the only mammals on the island. (There are also three domestic cats.)

Saturday, May 31, 1913.
   Pulo Bilang Bilangan.
        I have not been off the prahn as I had my hands full with the specimens; many of the birds were badly shot and it takes much time to clean them.