In the Eastern Seas

by William Henry Giles Kingston

My uncle led, axe in hand, to clear away any creepers or underwood which might impede our progress. The girls, with Oliver and I on either hand, followed, while the three men, with their guns ready for use, brought up the rear. The views were, however, confined, in consequence of the thickness of the forest and the somewhat level nature of the country; but in the distance we could see mountains rising, with intervening hills, which showed us that there was some climbing in prospect. Nothing could exceed the beauty of the woods, or the great variety of strange trees and plants which met our sight in every direction. Among the most beautiful and curious were the orchids. One especially arrested our attention. It had large yellow clusters of flowers hanging down from some of the lower branches of the trees, so that it was more than usually conspicuous. Our uncle called it the Vanda Lowii. Many of its strange pendent flower-spikes almost reached the ground. Each was about six or eight feet long, with large, handsome flowers three inches across, varying in colour from orange to red, with deep purple-red spots. Some, indeed, were even longer than that; and we counted on one thirty-six flowers arranged in a spiral way upon a slender, thread-like stalk.

A shout from one of the men a short distance behind made us stop.

“Why, that is a rum-looking creature!” exclaimed Dick Tarbox.

“Dat?—dat one big frog with wing!” cried Potto Jumbo, with a loud laugh.

We turned round, and just at the same moment a companion probably of the first that had been seen seemed to be flying in a slanting direction from the bough of a high tree into a small pool which we had noticed as we passed. Potto sprang forward, and caught it just as it was reaching the water. It was a curious-looking creature, certainly. The back and limbs were of a dark shining green colour, while the under surface and inner toes were yellow. The body was about four inches long, while the webs of each hind foot, when fully stretched out, covered a surface of not less than four square inches. Its toes were peculiarly long, and fully webbed to their extremity, so that, when expanded, they presented a surface to the air considerably larger than the whole of the body, which was also capable of being filled out by wind.

“Ah, this is a real flying-frog!” observed our uncle.

However, it was altogether a very curious creature. We were anxious to preserve it to show to Mr Hooker. It was accordingly consigned to Roger Trew’s bag, our uncle saying that he would preserve it when we stopped to rest.

The tree-ferns also were very graceful, of various heights and forms, from eight to fifteen feet high, their tall leaves waving over in the most picturesque manner.

“We shall soon have a stream to cross,” said my uncle, “which I consider the boundary of my domain. However, as I have made excursions a short distance beyond it, I have built a bridge that I might get across without difficulty. You must, however, string up your nerves, as, probably, you have seldom passed over such a structure. It is exactly such as I have seen built by the Dyaks in Borneo.”

On getting to the banks of the stream it was evident that without a boat or a bridge we should be unable to cross. We now, however, saw the means my uncle had contrived. The bridge was made entirely of bamboo. A number of stout pieces crossed each other like the letter X, fixed in the bank on either side, and rising a few feet above it. They were then firmly bound together, as also to a long bamboo of the largest size which rested on them, and formed the only pathway over which we had to cross. Another long bamboo, raised three feet above the other on either side, formed the hand-rails. It was, however, supported also by ratans, which led from some overhanging trees above it, while other bamboos were stuck into the banks, and leaning outward over the stream, formed diagonal supports.