I long for you to walk about with and observe the
queer things in the streets of Singapore. The Chinamen and their ways
are inexhaustibly amusing. My revolver is too heavy for daily use. I
wish I had had a small one.--Yours sincerely,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
* * * * *
TO AN UNKNOWN CORRESPONDENT[13]
_Si Munjon Coal Works, Borneo. May, 1855._
One of the principal reasons which induced me to come here was that it
is the country of those most strange and interesting animals, the
orang-utans, or "mias" of the Dyaks. In the Sarawak district, though
scarce twenty miles distant, they are quite unknown, there being some
boundary line in this short space which, obeying the inexplicable laws
of distribution, they never pass. The Dyaks distinguish three different
kinds, which are known in Europe by skulls or skeletons only, much
confusion still existing in their synonymy, and the external characters
of the adult animals being almost or quite unknown. I have already been
fortunate enough to shoot two young animals of two of the species,
which were easily distinguishable from each other, and I hope by staying
here some time to get adult specimens of all the species, and also to
obtain much valuable information as to their habits.
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