along the coasts, as nine-tenths of the whole are marine
productions.

It was on the 2d of July that we left Aru, followed by all the Macassar
praus, fifteen in number, who had agreed to sail in company. We passed
south of Banda, and then steered due west, not seeing land for three
days, till we sighted some low islands west of Bouton. We had a strong
and steady south-east wind day and night, which carried us on at about
five knots an hour, where a clipper ship would have made twelve. The sky
was continually cloudy, dark, and threatening, with occasional drizzling
showers, till we were west of Bouru, when it cleared up and we enjoyed
the bright sunny skies of the dry season for the rest of our voyage.
It is about here, therefore that the seasons of the eastern and western
regions of the Archipelago are divided. West of this line from June to
December is generally fine, and often very dry, the rest of the year
being the wet season. East of it the weather is exceedingly uncertain,
each island, and each side of an island, having its own peculiarities.
The difference seems to consist not so much in the distribution of the
rainfall as in that of the clouds and the moistness of the atmosphere.
In Aru, for example, when we left, the little streams were all dried up,
although the weather was gloomy; while in January, February, and March,
when we had the hottest sunshine and the finest days, they were always
flowing. The driest time of all the year in Aru occurs in September and
October, just as it does in Java and Celebes. The rainy seasons agree,
therefore, with those of the western islands, although the weather is
very different. The Molucca sea is of a very deep blue colour, quite
distinct from the clear light blue of the Atlantic. In cloudy and dull
weather it looks absolutely black, and when crested with foam has a
stern and angry aspect. The wind continued fair and strong during our
whole voyage, and we reached Macassar in perfect safety on the evening
of the 11th of July, having made the passage from Aru (more than a
thousand miles) in nine and a half days.

My expedition to the Aru Islands had been eminently successful. Although
I had been for months confined to the house by illness, and had lost
much time by the want of the means of locomotion, and by missing the
right season at the right place, I brought away with me more than nine
thousand specimens of natural objects, of about sixteen hundred distinct
species. I ha