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The last time in Ndian.
Page 401
The flying dog ("flying fox" - ed.) , with its wobbly movements, falls heavily
down among the piled up rubble of the slope at the shot.
Several smaller flying dogs (Cynonycteris eollaris), dark-
brown, blackish-grey or yellowish-brown, but whose noses lacked
the large folds of skin which gave the other species (Epomophorus
monstrosus), which has often been suggested as one of the most characteristic creatures of these regions, its most peculiar, or as the Latin
name indicates, "wonderful" appearance, were shot by the moonlight,
which even at this time of year could sometimes break out, just outside the factory, where they flew from and to the fig trees standing there.
However, it was not always easy to get shots at them.
They came quickly, completely unnoticed, in a rapid, undulating flight, fluttered for a few moments in a zigzag around the crown of the tree, and then hung on to some branch. It was at these moments, when they fluttered around the crown, outlining themselves against the bright sky, that they had to be shot, for once they had entered the foliage they suddenly disappeared from sight.
And then a few words about life at Ndian. The best order reigned in Linneil's factory, the room was simple but decorated, the food clean and well cooked: this latter entirely the personal merit of the manager, since since the often gloomy time on the mountain, after his arrival in Cameroon, he had acquired no small amount of practice in the noble art of cooking, specially adapted to the prevailing conditions and resources. As soon as we got up, we drank our coffee
or tea on the veranda with baked bread, a food by no means common under the conditions
there, since baking without an oven was both
a difficult and difficult procedure. The fermentation with the commercially available »baking powder« never really succeeded, and the bread
therefore often became hard and lumpy.
An excellent leavening agent was palm wine, which also gave the bread
a good sour taste. But this could not always be obtained,
but on the contrary, it was quite rare for the natives to bring such.
Linnell, however, solved this problem in a successful way.
By putting ripe plantains, cut into pieces, of which we always had ample supply, in water for a day or so, until they fermented properly, and then straining off the pieces, an acidic aqueous juice was obtained with exactly the same fermenting properties as palm wine.
The primeval forests of the West
As a result of the rain, which began to fall in torrents almost daily, soon not much work could be done in the open air, and
some longer excursions into the dripping dense forest were out of the question. The moments that could be spent outside, I therefore kept mostly close to the factory, where, moreover, the
best catching places were found, partly down by the river, where, as mentioned, the large butterflies often flew around, and partly also in the
bush, which, however, gave much worse results, although it
must be examined from time to time in any case.
Beetles were
very scarce, and of the larger forms, mainly ceramby ciders were found. Small, tired owners flew around the lamp in the evenings, where they got stuck on the oil house, or ate into the beams of the factory. The sand flies were sometimes quite annoying, but the mosquitoes, on the other hand, had almost disappeared. One evening, when the rain had stopped, I guided my steps into the bush forest following the narrow path; but hardly an animal was to be seen. Not a chirp was heard, everything was quiet and still. The animals did not seem to thrive in these damp, impenetrable thickets. From the river everything looked so impressively beautiful through the undulating
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Jungle Sourdough Recipe
This and flour and salt were then kneaded into a dough, which, when placed in a tin mold, which was placed in a larger iron pot with a lid and serving as an oven, formed an excellent bread, which during baking often rose high above the edges of the mold.
The almost standard dish for dinner consisted of chicken fried in palm oil with very hot pepper and boiled rice, sometimes also palm oil chop, also this hot pepper, which dishes
were generally preferred to the monotonous preserves.
In the evenings, chicken in oil or some preserved meat usually came to the table, as well as fruit or pea flour soup, after which we lit our pipes over a steaming cup of tea.
After the silence at the factory, the best time for notes and conservation began, here even more favored by the almost complete absence of mosquitoes, which in some places, as at Ekundu, made such late employment impossible. For another couple of weeks, until the end of June, the investigations at Ndian were continued. But the rain poured more and more often through the air, the moments when the sun broke through the gray wall of clouds became more and more rare. From the beginning, my intention was to remain at Ndian over the rainy season, but when one day word came that Linnell would leave the factory for a trip to Fernando Po, I also decided to leave Ndian and go to Bonge, where, from what seemed to be evident during the Christmas visit, the best harvests were to be expected. The country was more open there, the animal life seemed richer, and the forest easier to explore.
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From Ndian.
The departure of the 2nd of June was in.
Down the steep slope, one box after another was carried and stowed in the canoe lying by the shore, with a vaulted roof in the middle, the same that had brought us up to Ndian;
and after we had taken leave of the recently arrived factory manager, who had been previously in Kitta and lately in Bibundi,
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"no less than 392 species of butterflies"
Page 455
the mentioned open places overgrown with creepers, one could
sometimes see the Salamis temora, which is rare in collections,
drawing the frame under measured wingbeats or resting on a leaf.
Now and then spreading its splendid, blue and violet-shifting
wings. Another form of the same genus. Salamis Anacardii,
white and dark. with small red suns surrounded by yellow and bordered by black and in certain lighting shimmering violet.
A large and
magnificent butterfly, on the other hand, was common and preferred sparse forest.
In clear sunlight it gracefully swings up among the treetops,
spreads its ostentatious wings, lowers and rises, circling
back and forth on outstretched wings. Then he looks down at a leaf or more often at its underside, where he rests with his head turned down and his wings folded. He is not infrequently startled from his resting place when one walks on wider forest paths, at the sides of which he likes to sit.
The butterflies mentioned here are generally among the more common ones, which therefore give a certain characteristic touch to the area where they occur. Among them, of course, one sees a number of rarer forms, which, however, in a general sketch like this, would not be appropriate to mention.
The areas examined during the trip proved to be rich in butterflies, and Prof. Aurivillius, who has processed the collections brought back from there, writes about this: "If one may judge the fauna of the various African regions according to the lists published so far, Cameroon must be one of the richest regions in Africa in butterflies. During his stay in Cameroon, Sjöstedt collected, as is evident from my now completed list, no less than 392 species of butterflies in the small area between the Cameroon Mountains and the Ndian River. From the very large area, which includes the entire South Atlantic Ocean south of the Tropic of Capricorn, Trimen lists in his excellent work no more than 387 species. From the large island of Madagascar, which has been visited by numerous collectors in recent years, according to Mabille, only 255 species of butterflies are known.
Of other local lists, mention may be made of Schauss and
Clements from Sierra Leone with 211, Karsch's from Togo with
220. and Plötz's list of Buchholz exchanges with
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The factory on the banks of the Meme river
Page 456
his 280 species. Buchholz, however, collected not only in Ashanti
and Gabon, but also and mainly in Cameroon.
All other local data are far below the number of species in the collection made by S. in Cameroon.
The stay at the Bonge factory, which was newly built, constructed
of corrugated iron, provided with inlaid golf and thus far more
than those I had previously inhabited, was pleasant in all respects,
to which the factory manager, Mr. Löfmarck, contributed much by his sense of order and his friendly nature. Below
the wide walkway or platform in front of the factory, the Memes bank, about twenty feet high, sank down, which during the dry season, when the water level, as can be seen in the adjacent picture, was
low, was soon covered by a vegetation of mostly winding lower plants. During the rainy season the water sometimes rose on the factory grounds. Under some tall shady trees the landing place was situated, which also served as a bathing place for both the whites and the blacks.
In the small cage, standing on posts for protection from the migratory ants, as can be seen in the photograph of my dwelling, a long-tailed white-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus ludio) had its being, giving us quite a bit of fun. The upper side was blackish, finely spotted with yellow, the chest and the underside white, and the area under the tail dark reddish brown. Its length was 90 cm, of which the tail took up half a meter. It was a pleasant little animal, which soon became tame, after which it was occasionally allowed to run around freely.
Her first visit, after she had been released from her cage, was usually to the palm-leaf mats and the sloping ceiling inside the house. She would scramble up the walls and ceiling in search of the large spiders sitting there, which she devoured with greed. It was certainly not advisable to leave her unattended, for all living glass and such things were soon exposed to her curiosity and destructiveness. On one such occasion she threw a large bottle of potassium cyanide and plaster of Paris on the ground before I could prevent it. When caught, she would throw herself in wild terror up the walls or into some other safe hiding place, from which it was not possible to get her down for a while. She became very affectionate in time and
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