Among the Islands: Adventures in the Pacific by Flannery Tim
Author:Flannery, Tim [Flannery, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Science, Adventure, History
ISBN: 9781443413589
Amazon: 1443413585
Goodreads: 15820993
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2011-01-01T08:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER 9
Probing towards the Summit
Prior to my arrival in Honiara Iâd written to David Roe, an archaeologist working in the Solomon Islands whoâd excavated a cave north of the capital on the Poha River. Among the bones heâd unearthed there were some jaws of the emperor rat. They looked fairly fresh, and I felt it was possible that the species still inhabited the area. So when David offered to introduce me to some people in a village near the caves, I jumped at the chance.
The village, which turned out to be almost on the outskirts of Honiara, was a rendezvous for prostitutes and their clients who arrived by taxi at all hours of the night. It was also close enough to town for the young men to get drunk and then go home and cause trouble. I hardly slept at all on my first night there for the screamed abuse of drunks, some of which was directed at me, and the comings and goings of the prostitutes and their clients. But, worst of all, the village was a long way from the forest.
My brief stay did, however, have one great benefit, for I met some older men who knew at first hand of Woodfordâs rats. One even claimed to have captured a kandora mbo, as he knew the emperor, around the time of World War II. The name means âground-living possumâ and he described finding them in burrows, so confirming my suspicions that the species was terrestrial. He advised me to walk into the foothills where the forest was better, and search for the creatures there. I didnât need much encouragement, and I set out late that morning in the company of some local landowners. Loaded down with equipment we walked through lowland grasses and decimated re-growth. It was suffocatingly hot and I was delighted when we came to a steep valley that had retained much of its original cover of trees. Even better, here the Poha River formed a magnificent waterhole, its crystal-clear waters flowing over a sandy bottom before cascading through a rocky defile. The water was alive with freshwater prawns and tiny coloured fish. It was a perfect place to camp.
That evening, after a refreshing swim, I prepared a meal of rice and mackerelâtypical fare for fieldworkers in the Solomons. As the sun set, the distant siren-like sound of the six-oâclock cicadas rose and fell with the last of the light, and slowly the creatures of the night roused themselves. Most of the mammals of Melanesia are nocturnal, so for a mammalogist this is the most exciting moment of the day. I was not prepared, however, for the experience of having a huge diadem horseshoe-batâits wingspan the length of my forearmâland on the branch of a dead sapling just a metre in front of me as I sat in camp. Its intricate nose-leaf twitched as it sent out its ultrasonic, pulsed cry with which it reads the world. As the sound patterns bounced back to the restless creature it twisted its body this way and that, rotating its ears like radar dishes.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari(13572)
The Tidewater Tales by John Barth(12193)
Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova(6616)
Do No Harm Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh(6493)
The Thirst by Nesbo Jo(6124)
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker(6008)
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari(4906)
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Tegmark Max(4898)
The Longevity Diet by Valter Longo(4634)
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson(4207)
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy(4199)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot(4025)
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker(3985)
Animal Frequency by Melissa Alvarez(3938)
Yoga Anatomy by Kaminoff Leslie(3874)
The Hacking of the American Mind by Robert H. Lustig(3823)
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot(3754)
Barron's AP Biology by Goldberg M.S. Deborah T(3753)
Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff & Amy Matthews(3551)