Last year I found a text in German in which Salomon Müller describes how he climbs Mount Singgalang in Sumatra, sees a pygmy squirrel on a mossy tree, and shoots it. I shared the text with a friend, who, like me was very excited about the finding. Since then she has lost the email in which I sent her the text, as have I, and I have absolutely no idea where I found the German text. I have searched as much as I could but not a trace of this text. Plenty of Dutch writings by Müller but not the detailed description in German of his ascent of Mt Singgalang. Am I losing my marbles or does that text indeed exist?
Thanks Oliver. I will check these links and see if I can find my info.
Thanks Ignas. I checked the texts through the links shared by Oliver but the text I look for wasn't there. I know it exists. I read it, quoted it in a draft publication, and of course forgot to reference it. Shoddy science altogether and also highly frustrating.
Hi Erik,
not the German text by Salomon Müller you were looking for, but I hope it will be still helpfull: "MÜLLER, S.: Ueber den Charakter der Thierwelt auf den Inseln des indischen Archipels, ein Beitrag zur zoologischen Geographie. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 12(1 ), 109-128 (1846)" This book and in particular the chapter by Müller is freely available as E-book via Google books.
Hi Sascha. I checked that German text as well. Some interesting information about mammals and bird there, but not the information I was looking for. Thanks anyway for the link. It is a good read for anyone interested in the zoology of Sumatra (and with a decent command of German).
Dear Erik,
I have a text by Salomon Müller also published in German language (I will add the file). Most probably the text you search for was published in "Archiv für Naturgeschichte" which is accessible via the Biodiversity Heritage Library (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org).
Best wishes, Peter
Dear Peter
Thanks for sharing. Not the text I was looking for but nevertheless very interesting. Müller certainly had remarkable knowledge of orangutan behaviour, ecology and distribution and it is obvious that he not only spent years in the forest or Sumatra and Borneo in the 1830s, but also that he was an excellent naturalist and observer. Also worth remembering that this was several decades before the much more frequently quoted Alfred Russel Wallace showed up on Borneo's shores. I guess it is the disadvantage of publishing in German or Dutch when most scientists read English and French :) - one gets easily overlooked. Anyway, the search for the German text on Mt Singgalang continues.
Nothing at the Library of Congress or at Harvard. Only his Dutch writings. Sorry.
Hi Erik,
you say you made a note of the Müller quote and just need the reference. Please would you add the original (German) text here, to your question comments. It will make the search easier. Meanwhile, there is one solo account of his travels in the area from 1838 and 2 coauthored for the Dutch Museum shortly after, plus several subsequent to his return to Germany, and mentions in peer texts up to and and beyond the end of the Victorian era, and the merge into modern literature,
- Several squirrels are mentioned variously: Eichhorn, Pithechir, tenuis modestus, Sciuridae, Lariscus insignis, Sundamys muelleri, Exilisciurus.
- As is moss on occasion: moosig, moosbedeckt
- And, as is typical, several spellings of local names: Singallang (Berg), Singalang, Sing galan, Galan Singg,
- And OCR glitches, e.g., Miiller for Müller
- etc.
Otherwise, it looks promising.
J"
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