The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-07

fWsternlann LOOK II. lie WOrKeQ Ou
 his course on the theory that the objec
 of his search would be found, probably
 in the more out of -the-way of the twt localities. Inquiry showed 1t to be Sil
 char It is near the border of the pro
 vince of Manipur, where the population
 IS sparse and where Europeans art
 scarce. because no white man Is allowed
 to enter Manipur So far as Forster i mann could learn, orchid hunters hac
 secured every inch of territory near Sy.
 met, while few or none had evel
 searched the neighborhood of Silchar.
 So, hiring boat a cook and some
 coolies to tow the boat, Forstermann be-
 took himself to Silchar. There he found i the house of the planter, and without
 making his presence known to the lat 1 ter, began weary hunt through the
 jungle for the orchid. In prosecuting
 his search, which lasted more than a
 week before any results were attained Forstermann travelled over many miles
 of jungle, and every day was more dis couraged than on the day before. The jungle was full of orchids, some of them extremely beautiful, but none was like
 the one that had been sold in London for two hundred guineas. One day, when about to give up the search as hopeless, he ran foul of a Sootchman, and the two began to talk about flowers.
 'I came across a beautiful orchid,
 one day last year." said the Scot. Tt looked like a new species to me, but,
 not being an expert, I gave 1t to a
 planter friend of mine who lives near here He promised to send 1t to London, and if it turned out as I thought. l
 hoped to make some money out of 1t. Not long ago he told me word had been received from London that plants of the same species are common there.'
 Naturally Forstermann held his peace about the real object of his presence at Silchar and the talk drifted to game and shooting. Presently the Scot said that there was a chance to get tiger and oth- CT big game in the jungle about twelve miles away. just over the border in Manipur.
 If you go there" said the Scot, 'you must be cautious. for the natives of Manipur have been killing white men pretty freely of late, It's over there that I found the orchid I was telling you of"
 Forstermann started on a hunting trip across the border in Manipur on the fol- lowing day. but he did not 80 hunting for tigers, He found the growth much more difficult than any he had encoun- tered as yet, but he persevered, literal- ly cutting his way through in places. Finally, in an open space in the forest, not far from the Manipur boundary, he found a great tree standing by itself, and upon it's trunk there were orchids growing 80 thlckly that they almost covered it. A brief examination showed them to be of the species he was search ing for and he hugged himself with joy as he gave his coolies orders to begin gathering the plants.
 Forstermann and his employers madc a pot of money out of his first consign ment of several thousand fine specimens, and his good luck induced him to re- main in the east for five or six years hunting new varieties. In that time he visited many localities in India, the is- land of ,Ceylon, Siam, Java, the Philip pines and the islands of Sulu, whose sultan recently acknowl- edged the sovereignty of the United States. From his talk it would appear that Forstermann got to be on extreme ly good terms with the reigning sultan, who must have been the one murdered 3 few years ago by the old sultana, whose young son Is now the ruling eul- Lan
 In all, Forstermann found about two- score new orchids. Not every one was valuable, though nearly III were of great interest to botanists. He made no other special searches on which so much depended in financial way as his first one, but he had many thrilling adventures. Once in Siam, when on the march, he sent a guide | ,head to select camping place for the | light. He had not gone far when an | .gonizing cry for help was heard. All | lands rushed to his aid but were una- l ,le to save him, for gigantic tiger was dragging the wretch into the woods as hey came up. They dared not follow | n the rapidly gathering darkness, but lext morning they found tiger and -uide the former gorged to stupidity nd the latter haIf-eaten. They killed he beast.
 Once, when in the Dyak country, knocked at the door of a atve hut to ask his way. Being inVi- ed to enter, he compiled, bat was hor- fled to see half dozen human nedds uspended by the hair in the middle of he place. Naturally the orchid hunter eclined the invitation to spend the light there, though. as he learned later,
 would have been entirely safe to do D. The master of the hut was head unter," but had the reputation of be- ig friendly to white men, One of orstermann most valuable finds was II orchid growing at the tip-top of an xct edingly high tree. He discovered
 while looking up and down the trunks eth his field-glass. The plant was sted by the botanists under Forster larn's name.--New York Press.
 DIFFERENTIATED SHIPS.