WCP1705

[1]¹

Batchian [Bacan]²

Oct[obe]^r 29th. 1858.

My dear Mr. Stevens³

As there is now a boat going which may just catch the mail at Ternate⁴ I write a few lines to let you know of my having arrived here safe & commenced operations & to mention a few things I forgot in my last hasty letter.

I came here in a small hired boat with my own men. Luckily it was fine weather or a hundred miles at sea with no means of cooking & only room for one day[']s water would have been more than unpleasant. It was however a useful experience before my proposed more extensive voyages. I stopped 5 days at the Kaióa [Kayoa]⁵ Islands just half way, & got a nice coll[ection]. of beetles but few birds. A fair number of new species & some curious varieties of those before found at Ternate & Gilolo [Halmahera].⁶ Here I have been as yet only 5 days, — & from the nature of the country & what I have already done I am inclined to think it may prove one of the best localities I have yet visited. I have already 20 species of Longicorns new to me, — nothing very grand but many pretty & very interesting. The most remarkable is one of a Bornean Genus, — a Triammatus very near T. Chevrolatii Pasc. also several species of the elegant little genus Serixia which have been very scarce or absent since I left Sarawak. I have also an elegant new Pachyrhynchus, a fine Ips, a small new Cicindela allied to the C. funerata. Dej of Dorey, & a small new Therates. In Butterflies I have taken an imperfect sp[e]c[imen] of a glorious new species very like Ulysses but distinct & even handsomer! Perfect spec[ime]^ns of this must be five pounders.

[2] I have seen also a ♀ of a grand new Ornithoptera but cannot tell what the male will prove. Codrus or I rather think a new allied species I have several times seen but too wild to catch. The Macassar Papilio near sarpedon is also here & 2-3 others I have not yet taken. Others [sic] butterflies scarce as yet but one close to or the same as the largest of the Aru blues very abundant. These are decidedly good prospects. Birds are as yet very scarce but I still hope to get a fine collection though I believe I have already the finest & most wonderful bird in the island. I had a good mind to keep it a secret but I cannot resist telling you, I have got here a new Bird of Paradise!!⁷ of a new genus!!! quite unlike any thing yet known, very curious & very handsome!!! When I can get a couple of pairs I will send them overland to see what a new Bird of Paradise will really fetch, — I expect £25 each! Had I seen the bird in Ternate I would never have believed it came from here, so far out of the hitherto supposed region of the Paradiseidae. I consider it the greatest discovery I have yet made & it gives me hopes of getting other species in Gilolo & Ceram [Seram].⁸

There is a species of Monkey⁹ also here much further east than in any other island so you see this is a most curious locality combining specie forms of the East & West of the Archipelago yet with species particular to itself. It also differs from all the other Moluccas in its geographical formation containing iron, coal, copper, & Gold, with a glorious forest vegetation & fine large mountain streams. It is a continent in miniature. The Dutch¹⁰ are working the coals and there is ^a good road to the mines which gives me easy access to the interior forests.

[3] So much for my prospects..¹¹

When I mentioned subscribing to Foxcroft¹²

1. I did not intend subscribing to for Lepidoptera if separate, as I cannot afford it, & beside care little for any but the Papilios & Pieridae. Withdraw my name therefore for Lepidoptera after the first year ^{if you cannot at once.} In Coleoptera I am willing to subscribe 2 years & even a third if he changes his locality, always supposing however that the collections are divided fairly, that is that each subscriber gets the same number of species, — the only advantage the first on the list have, being the best of the unique ones, & quite enough advantage too, in fact too much, for when 20 people subscribe ^equally to anything, it is absurd that there sh[oul]^d be any advantaged attached to being first on the list.

2. I see among the pins last sent some no. 14 which are perfectly useless being so short. They are as short as 7. & as thick as 13. What I want is a pin nearly as fine as 7 but much longer because many delicale [delicate] beetles have such long legs that 7 does not raise them high enough. This sort of pin I hope to find in the next box as I see you have sent some no. 5 (I think).

3. An Essay on Varieties¹³ which I sent to Mr. Darwin¹⁴ has been presented ^read to the Linnean Soc[iety].¹⁵ by Dr. Hooker¹⁶ & Sir C[harles]. Lyell¹⁷ on account of an [1 word illeg. struck through] extraordinary coincidence with some views of Mr. Darwin, long written but not yet published, & which ^were also read at the same meeting. If these are published I dare say Mr. Kippist¹⁸ will let you have a dozen copies for me. If so send me 3, & of the remainder send one to Bates,¹⁹ Spruce²⁰ & any other of my friends who may be interested in the matter & who do not attend the Linnean.

[4] 4. Again I wish to remind you to obtain 2 copies of all the papers published under my agreement with Mr. Saunders²¹ sending me one & keeping the other carefully for me. I should much like also a copy of Mr. Westwood[']s paper²² on the Singapore Cleridae as many of the same genera & closely allied species occur all over the Archipelago.

I do not think Siam [Thailand] much of a locality. It is too much cultivated[.] Cambodia on the other hand is a grand country for a naturalist. I know much about if from the French missionaries I met at Singapore. Every body²³ says Ceram is a fine country for birds but I believe no remarkably fine birds are known from it but Lories &c. The natives all say the birds of Ceram are very beautiful & they judge only by the domesticated birds lories[,] cockatoes [sic] &c. It may be very good but I think there is no good grounds for saying it is so. What a wonderful locality Ega [Tefe]²⁴ is! for the museum to take £70 worth from a collection after 2 years previous collecting there. Two months exhaust my localities here.

I enclose a note²⁵ for my mother²⁶ which please forward.28 I can do nothing at ^drawing birds, but send a horrible sketch²⁷ of my discovery that you may not die of curiosity. I am told the wet season here is terrible & it begins in Dec[embe]^r so I shall probably have to leave but if I do well may return next year two months earlier. I am waiting anxiously to hear that the Amboyna [Ambon]²⁸ beetles have come safe & unspoilt.

I must now remain | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Samuel Stevens Esq.