Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Contribution to the Zo�geography of the East Indian Islands, Vol. 44
In some ports arrangements were made to leave a collector who was to be picked up again on the return trip. In other cases it was possible to arrange with the people to have them assemble material for purchase on our return. In many cases the fact that the ship made calls at a number of near by ports on the same island made it possible to see a large part of some of these various localities. Most of the steaming was done at night, and there were but few days on the voyage, which lasted more than two months, when it was impossible for all hands to be at work ashore, generally with a very large and useful follow ing of local natives. This method of collecting would of course avail little in an intensive study of the fauna of an island as regards a single group of animals, but for the taking of reptiles and amphibians it works very well. Ten people working together will, I think, take more in one day than a single person will take in the same locality in ten days. On the island of Halmahera ten persons worked at six localities for eleven days. On New Guinea stays of one to three days were made at nine localities, as well as a couple of days each at Saonek on the neighboring island of Waigiu, and at the island Of Mapia between New Guinea and the Carolines. Thus it was possible to do far more shore collecting than would be possible for a naturalist attached to one of the regular vessels employed in deep sea or other scientific research. Both Malays and Papuans can be taught to collect, and do so eagerly; the pay in the case of the Papuans being tobacco, brass wire cut into short lengths, and red cloth. A popular account of the natives, etc., of the part of New Guinea Visited has been published in the National geographic magazine for July and August, 1908.
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