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The fish were lined up like so many soldiers, and jumped in unison at perfectly regular intervals.  The sound of their bodies all hitting the water at the same time, and repeated six or eight times, sounded like gunfire across the water.

April 18 - Ambon

Early in the morning we loaded our gear, heavier now by the cuscus cage, into the rowboat, and started back for Ambon.  It was cloudy and threatening when we left, and raining hard by the time we got across the bay.  I huddled in my raincoat, and Bill proudly held a paper umbrella over his head as the boys rowed as hard as they could.

In the morning we supervised the making of a cage for our new animals, and did a few errands in town.  Passing a church we heard what sounded like a country organ - this is Sunday morning - but B. told us it was an orchestra of bamboo flutes.  About ten men play on flutes of different sizes, and of course the simple reeds, played in unison, sound exactly like an old-fashioned organ.  It was very pretty, and the soft Malay voices joined in in translations of Dutch hymns. 

In the evening we went for a drive with Mr. Smits, whom we met on the Van Imhoff and who is staying here until the next boat.  He is an amateur orchid collector, and drove us out to Passo, a village about twelve kilometers away, where the principal industry seems to be selling orchids.  They are hung on small posts along the side of the road, and sell for fifty Dutch cents a plant.

April 19 - Ambon

In the morning we went for a walk up the mountain side in back of the town.  We had intended going only a short way, but the path was good, though very steep, and Bill found collecting interesting.  In a kayo putih (eucalyptus) grove he found a huge display of Myrmecodia, and had one of the plants cut down, and then dissected so that we could all see how the ants utilize the chambers in the parasitic plant as a nest.  Iridomyrmex myrmedcodiae was the ant in this particular case; the plant is na ed after the ant and the ant after the plant.  When we had climbed for an hour or more we came to a nice little village, where we bought some coconuts to drink, and here we learned that the government rest house was only a little farther on.  So we climbed up to the top of the mountain, so e 450 meters altogether, and sat on the verandah and admired the view of the jungle below us, Ambon in the distance, and the sea beyond that.  We had been there only a few moments when a heavy rain began.  It seemed doubtful that we could get back before lunch, and in scouting around the neighborhood B. found for us three kinds of bananas, delicious ripe mangosteens, a can of California sardines, some sweet biscuits, and native cigarettes.  We could have spent the day quite comfortably, but about twelve o'clock the rain stopped and we came down the path, which was much more slippery than the ascent had been when it was fairly dry.  The little village near the rest house is inhabited by soldiers who have retired on a pension, and is most attractive - solid little houses of bamboo covered with plaster (an earthquake-proof construction), and surrounded with gardens - roses and orchids both were plentiful.

Transcription Notes:
Typographical errors in original document were left uncorrected per transcription instructions. sfl