Transcribe Hornaday, W. T. Letter to the Ward, Henry A. (1878-10-21)

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Hornaday Orient Expedition_1878_10_21_b.jpg

reptiles or fresh water fishes of Borneo. Am taking only skins
& dry skeletons of the larger fishes, as that the collection will
not be bulky & expensive. There is a variety of snakes
here, mostly very handsome species with many venomous.
 After I return to this place six days hence I will collect
my forces and the expedition will set off for the River Batang
Lupur. farther east & will visit several places during the
next month. Am going to a certain locality famous for argus 
pheasants & Mias. & hope for specimens of both. I have now
a Chinese cook, a Portuguese hunter & a little Malay man-
of-all-work who mighs out skeletons very well. These three
cost me $37. per month-, dear enough, but they all work
well and stop at nothing, so I am satisfied to pay them
well. Besides these I have two Dyak men hunting constantly
for me., for <?u Hylobates >, wild hog & & ^big ^ Proboscis monkeys. And
whenever my hunter or I go into the jungles we are obliged 
to have a Dyak or Malay guide, & a man to carry the game.
I tell you it is far, far from gay to hunt in this country.
A fellow often wades through mud & ooze a foot deep half a
day & climbs up & down mountains the other half without
getting a single thing. Hunting is simply awful the hardest
work a man can find to do. I forgot to mention my fine
large, soft-shelled turtle. (skin & bones) & also a big fresh-
water turtle with a very thick shell. name unknown to me.
 So to the baby-russians which you want from Banca
and a number of other placesI can only insinuate that
I don't like the idea of getting them, and for this reason: it
would involve a good deal of traveling to find them out
in the first instance, a considerable stay in order to get
enough to make it anything short of a dead loss, and an ex-
penditure of money for thing alone, and that not so
particularly valuable either. The country of the babinussa
offers almost else (unless it is the rhinoceros) which
would be worth the expense of getting, or which we have
not got already. The we already have, the tigers of Java
we would not be able to get, and the Javanese peacock
in not much one way or another . I am decidedly

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    After I return to this place six days hence I will collect

my forces and the expedition will set off for the River Batang Lupur. farther east & will visit several places during the next month. Am going to a certain locality famous for argus pheasants & Mias. & hope for specimens of both. I have now a Chinese cook, a Portuguese hunter & a little Malay man- of-all-work who mighs out skeletons very well. These three cost me $37. per month-, dear enough, but they all work well and stop at nothing, so I am satisfied to pay them well. Besides these I have two Dyak men hunting constantly for me., for <?u Hylobates >, wild hog & & ^big ^ Proboscis monkeys. And whenever my hunter or I go into the jungles we are obliged to have a Dyak or Malay guide, & a man to carry the game. I tell you it is far, far from gay to hunt in this country. A fellow often wades through mud & ooze a foot deep half a day & climbs up & down mountains the other half without getting a single thing. Hunting is simply awful the hardest work a man can find to do. I forgot to mention my fine large, soft-shelled turtle. (skin & bones) & also a big fresh- water turtle with a very thick shell. name unknown to me.

    So to the baby-russians which you want from Banca

and a number of other placesI can only insinuate that I don't like the idea of getting them, and for this reason: it would involve a good deal of traveling to find them out in the first instance, a considerable stay in order to get enough to make it anything short of a dead loss, and an ex- penditure of money for thing alone, and that not so particularly valuable either. The country of the babinussa offers almost else (unless it is the rhinoceros) which would be worth the expense of getting, or which we have not got already. The we already have, the tigers of Java we would not be able to get, and the Javanese peacock in not much one way or another . I am decidedly