Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/405

] tion of the wind emitted agreeable and varied sounds. As the joints of this long bamboo were very numerous, care had been taken to pierce it in different directions; so that from whatever point the wind blew, it always met with some holes. The sound of this instrument more nearly resembles that of the harmonica, than any other to which I can compare it.

The experience which we had had of our canoe, in traversing the road, had given us the hint to prepare it better for our return. Accordingly the outriggers were strengthened, and we proceeded towards the town, without any apprehensions of being drowned.

2d. Some hours of this day were employed in visiting the Governor's cabinet of natural history, in which I admired a numerous collection of fine papilios, in perfect preservation. I observed many duplicates of very rare ones, and a large box entirely filled with the beautiful species called papilio agamemnon. This cabinet also contained a great variety of shells, among which were above twenty scalata (turbo scalaris, Linn.)

The Secretary of the Council also possessed great collections of this kind. A taste for procuring objects of natural history is very much diffused among the Dutch, who find it a powerful mean of obtaining them preferment, when they know how