Notes on a cruise in the Southern China Sea
C. Boden Kloss published this account in 1904, describing an eleven-week zoological cruise aboard the schooner Terrapin through the islands of the Southern China Sea in the summer of 1900. The work serves as both a field narrative and a taxonomic contribution, documenting the mammal and bird faunas of islands that had received little or no prior scientific attention.
Summary
The article traces the voyage from Singapore through Linga, the Tambelan group, and the Anambas archipelago, with brief stops at smaller islets. Kloss’s primary purpose was collecting zoological specimens, and the narrative is organized around each island stop, describing the physical geography, the human settlements, and the natural history encountered. The account is explicitly self-aware about its limitations—Kloss notes he kept only “the very baldest log” and that the narrative was drawn up after a three-year interval, making it less detailed than he would have wished (p. 53).
The central intellectual contribution is taxonomic. Across the islands visited, Kloss and Abbott collected material that yielded numerous new species (marked sp. nov.), particularly among small mammals—squirrels, rats, bats, and tree-shrews—reflecting the pattern of insular endemism in the region. Kloss articulates a biogeographical principle: when a mammal species occurs on a solitary island it is confined to that island, but when present on an island within a group it generally occurs throughout the group, with the notable exception of the large squirrel Ratufa anambæ, found only on Jimaja (p. 76). The bird faunas, by contrast, showed no peculiarities and matched adjacent mainland assemblages (p. 58).
The human geography of the islands provides context for the colonial administrative landscape. The Sultan of Linga, nominally ruler over a wide territory, received an annual income from the Dutch; Chinese communities were governed by a “Captain China” responsible for poll tax collection; and the opium-farmer’s presence marked the commercial infrastructure of settlements like Terempa and Jimaja (pp. 56, 69, 74). Kloss also notes the obsolescence of British Admiralty sailing directions for these waters, quoting a Danish sailor who preferred continental publications (p. 69).
Key Findings
- The cruise lasted approximately eleven weeks in 1900, covering Linga, Pulo Taya, Pulo Pengiki Besar, the Tambelan group, the Rocky Islets, Saddle Island, and the Anambas archipelago (pp. 53–80).
- The mammal fauna of Linga comprised 18 species, of which 6 were new to science: Arctogalidia simplex, Tragulus pretiosus, Rattus notabilis, Mus lingensis, M. fremens, and M. firmus (p. 57).
- The Tambelan group yielded 8 mammal species, 5 of them new: Macacus pumilus, Pteropus lepidus, Tupai bunoæ, Sciurus memellus, Sciurus abbottii, and Mus tambelanicus (pp. 65–66).
- The Anambas produced 14 mammal species, 9 new to science, including the notably large Ratufa anambæ (3¼ lbs, 33 inches total length)—an insular form characterized by increase rather than the usual dwarfing (pp. 76, 78).
- The Sultan of Linga received an annual income of approximately $80,000 from the Dutch, and the Chinese community paid a poll tax of $3 per head (p. 56).
- The Anambas archipelago extends over an area 65 geographical miles long north-south and 55 miles wide, with Jimaja (the largest island) covering perhaps 30,000 acres and Siantan about 20,000 acres (pp. 69, 74).
Conclusion
Kloss’s definitive takeaway is that the islands of the Southern China Sea, while faunistically unremarkable at the level of birds (which matched mainland assemblages), harbour a rich diversity of insular mammal endemism. Each island or island group possesses its own local races of the common Malayan genera, and in scarcely an instance is an insular form identical with that on another island or the mainland (p. 78). The work thus establishes the region as a significant area of micro-evolutionary diversification, particularly among small mammals, and provides the baseline faunal records against which later work would be measured.
Context
- Kloss was a professional naturalist working within the Dutch colonial administrative framework; the islands visited were Dutch possessions (the Linga Sultanate, the Anambas), and the narrative reflects the colonial infrastructure—Sultan’s income from the Dutch, the “Captain China” system, opium-farming concessions, and the Straits dollar as the only currency in circulation (pp. 56, 63, 69).
- The article draws on the collections of both Kloss and Dr. W. L. Abbott, with taxonomic descriptions later formalized by Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (1902) and the Washington Academy of Sciences (1900) (p. 80).