WCP1701

Letter (WCP1701.1583)

[1]

Singapore

March. 10th. 1856

My dear Mr Stevens1

I have received your letter of Jan. 6th. announcing the arrival in good order of the Insects by the "Cornubia".2 At the same time I got the parcel of Books &c. which had been delayed a month as usual at Ceylon. The other shoes &c. do not send till I want something else. Do not send me more B[ritish]. M[useum]. Catalogues, except new ones of Coleoptera, Birds, or Butterflies.3 The moths have scarcely 50 Indian species in it. I send in the box a pair broken spectacles. Get repaired at the makers, & get another pair exactly like to be sent in next parcel. Get me Crawford’s Malay Dictionary 2 vols. (£. 2. I think) & send me the 2nd. vol. only by post, as the 1st. is only a grammar & treatise which I do not now want, but keep it for me.4

I have been here already near a month, and must probably remain a month longer doing nothing. I can go nowhere for a short time, owing to the expense of travelling &c. as it will be three months before I get more money from you, and after my expenses here and the necessary outfit of clothes[,] ammunition & other necessaries which I must now get, I shall have little enough to pay my passage to Celebes [Sulawesi] & live for two months. Had I cash to spare I would make a collection of Fish in Spirits or go to some place on the main land, but I am afraid of any expense, as I know the excessive inconvenience & misery of being without cash in a strange country. I ought to lay in a much larger stock of many things here than I can do, for if sent for afterwards I shall get worse articles at double the price. The exchange too is now very bad for me 4s. 11¼d to the dollar the intrinsic value of which is only 4s. 2d.5

[2] You say the Bangalore Coll[ectio]ns. are "a very poor lot for Borneo": But you must remember they were all collected in the wet season & before I had found a good locality, and if you turn to my letter when I sent them, you will see that I characterised them myself as a "very miserable collection" except the Moths. I told you in my last that I would not trouble you any more about fixing prices, except in a few instances. Where there are a great number of duplicates you may dispose of some to the Paris dealers, but not till you have sold as many as possible to private parties and not till you have had the collection in your hands a good while, say 12 months. Never sell all the duplicates however. Keep back 10 or 12 always for me.

The remarks of Count Munyol [?]6 are very amusing, but he is no Entomologist to despise small insects. He errs as most people do in believing that the tropical insects are generally large and beautiful. Mr. Payen’s7 coll[ection]. which he mentions was the result of many years' collecting, not in Java only but over the whole Archipelago,& as it was no doubt principally obtained through natives, did not contain the smaller & more obscure species. The show therefore would be very great. But if at the end of 5 years collecting you pick out the finest things from my private coll[ectio]n I have little doubt they will surpass it. Even from my Sing[apore]. & Bornean collections you may select a very fine series of large and handsome insects of which perhaps half will be single specimens. I believe that when any tropical country is as thoroughly worked as England is, the average size of the insects will be found to be no greater, neither will there be found a larger proportion of bright coloured ones. In a paper I enclose for Newman8 I have said something on this point.

Before I left London the constant cry was "Do not neglect the small things." "The small things are what we want because they have never been collected in the Tropics."

[3] By the "Water Lily" left Singapore March 5th. 18569

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6. { 2 casks with 5 Orang [Orangutan] skins in Arrack.10
{ 1 Box, cont[ainin]g 16 orang sculls [sic] & 2 skeletons[.]
{ 1 Box cont[ainin]g a bundle of ferns & 6 boxes of Insects & sundries.

six

{

{

 1 large case cont[ainin]g Bird & Mammal skins, shells, reptiles[,] 1 box of insects & private papers.

{

{

1 box cont[ainin]g 2 boxes of Insects — Books & papers & broken specs.

About the Orang skins I have written before,11 stating that I should wish if possible one purchaser for the whole series £250 or £300 (if in good condition) — otherwise to be kept if they can be without any injury & with not much expense. Consult Messrs. Owen12 & Waterhouse.13

The orang sculls & skeletons are all private.14

Of the ferns, keep one complete set including the numbered specimens for me.15

The shells dispose of as quick as possible.

The Bird skins, in the tin box only, 60 in number are for sale. all others private[.]

The Mammals as before, sell, keeping back for me a series of the squirrels, & of all others which Mr. Waterhouse cannot name.

The Reptiles sell to any one, who will furnish me with a list of them the whole. On those conditions they can go at a low price.

There are about 5000 insects for sale besides upwards of 2000 private.16 There are two boxes of Butterflies in papers among which are a few good things. Of these you must select a series for me, if not [4] already in my private coll[ection]. from Borneo. There are about 1500 more moths, which I worked very hard to get, staying alone up on the top of the mountain for a month or more. You must complete my series from them, & substitute better specimens where required, & you will then have left a fine series for Mr Saunders17 & for sale. There are many fine new species among them & the small ones are better pinned or preserved than in my former coll[ectio]n.

Value for Insurance

2 casks of Orang skins £ 50
1 box of skeletons &c.0 £100
Insects (7000) £ 75
Mammal & Bird skins &c. £ 25
Total £250

I put the skeletons high because those sent before will be worthless without these sculls [sic].

Should the first cask of skins have arrived & the skins be spoilt, reduce the amount above mentioned to £25.

A human scull in the larger case is for J. B. Davis Esq.18 Shelton, Staffordshire who will send for it.

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1
Stevens, Samuel (1817-1899). British entomologist and dealer in natural history specimens; agent of ARW.
2
ARW's notebook for November 1854 to January 1856 records for his time in Borneo that the "7th Consignment, left Sadang 21 July 1855, Left Singapore by Cornubia for London early in August ['20th' and 'England in Jan.?' inserted], and gives details of the specimens listed in this letter (Baker, D. B. 2001. Alfred Russel Wallace's record of his consignments to Samuel Stevens. Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 75(16): 251-341 [p. 263]).
3
British Museum catalogues for Coleoptera, Birds and Butterflies available at the time of writing were: [White, A.]. 1847. Nomenclature of Coleopterous Insects in the collection of the British Museum, Part I. Cetoniadae. London, UK: Spottiswoode and Shaw, with seven volumes published by 1853, the eighth and ninth appearing in 1855 nd 1856 respectively; [Gray, G. R.]. 1844. List of the Specimens of Birds in the Collection of the British Museum, Part I. Accipitres. London, UK: George Woodfall and Son, with five parts published before 1855, the series continuing to 1868, and [Walker, F.]. 1854. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. London, UK: Edward Newman, with six parts published by 1855, the series continuing to 1866.
4
Crawfurd, J. 1852. A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language, with a Preliminary Dissertation, 2 vols. Vol. 1: Dissertation and Grammar; Vol. 2: Malay and English, and English and Malay Dictionaries. London, UK: Smith, Elder, and Co.
5
The text, perhaps a postscript: "Lacordaire’s vol[ume]. is as Bates says very good, send me the next vol. when out." has been added in the left-hand margin of this page, to be read if the page is rotated, referring to: Lacordaire, T. [and Chapuis, F.]. 1854-1876. Histoire naturelle des insectes. "Genera" des coléoptères, 13 vols. Paris, France: Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret. The first two volumes had been published in 1854; since the third appeared in 1856 and the fourth, in 1857, ARW may have been awaiting either of those.
6
As yet unidentified.
7
Payen, Antoine Auguste Joseph (1785-1853). Belgian artist and naturalist; official painter to the government in Batavia (Indonesia).
8
Newman, Edward (1801-1876). British entomologist, botanist and writer.
9
ARW's notebook also records that the "6th Consignment (Sarawak.) 9th in all, left Sarawak [Santubong ?] 1 January 1856, left Singapore 2 March by the ′Water Lily′; arrived London 21 June", the contents noted as "various" (Baker, D. B. 2001. Alfred Russel Wallace's record of his consignments to Samuel Stevens. Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 75(16): 251-341 [p. 263]).
10
Eastern native-produced spirits, here used to preserve the specimens (Oxford English Dictionary. 1989. arrack, n. Oxford English Dictionary. <www.oed.com>).
11
The block of text beginning "About the Orang skins…" has been separated from the text above by a horizontal line across the whole page and a vertical line has also been drawn beside this text in the left margin.
12
Owen, Richard (1804-1892). British biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist.
13
Waterhouse, George Robert (1810-1888). British entomologist and Curator of the Museum of the Zoological Society of London.
14
This section has also been separated from the one below by short horizontal lines at the left of the page and has been highlighted by a vertical line next to the text in the left margin.
15
The remaining items listed on this side of the page by ARW with their manner of disposal have all been separated from those above or below by a short horizontal line at the left of the page.
16
The section of text on this side of the page beginning "There are about 5000 insects..." is also separated from the section above by a short horizontal line at the left of the page. This section runs on to the next side of the page, ending "in my former coll[ectio]n", where it is also separated from the title of the list underneath by a short horizontal line at the left of the page.
17
Saunders, William Wilson (1809-1879). British insurance broker, entomologist and botanist.
18
Davis, Joseph Barnard (1801-1881). British physician and craniologist.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP1701.1583)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Arias, Lily C. [2012-04-02] Transcription checked by Knott, Peter [2012-05-14] Transcription checked by Parfitt, Elisabeth [2012-08-13] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Watt, Helen [2018-09-11]

Please cite as “WCP1701,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1701