whom I obtained a number of the same species of
shells that I had gathered before at the Spice
Islands and other places in the eastern part of the
archipelago. The common nautilus - shell is occasionally
found there, and a very perfect one was given
me that had been brought from Engano. It is, however,
probable that the animal does not live in these
seas, and that these shells have floated from the vicinity
of the island of Rotti, off the southern end of
Timur, where, as already noticed, these rare mollusks
are said to live in abundance.
Bencoolen is also well known throughout the
archipelago as having been the residence of Sir
Stamford Raffles, who was governor of the English
possessions, on this coast, from 1818 to 1824. From
1811 to 1816, while the whole archipelago was under
the English, Sir Stamford was governor-general, and
resided near Batavia, and it was contrary to his
most earnest representations that Java and its dependencies
were ceded back to the Dutch; and
the great, direct revenue which those islands have
yielded to Holland, since that time, has proved, in
an emphatic manner, the correctness of his foresight.
Ever since I arrived at Batavia, I have frequently
heard his name mentioned by the Dutch officials,
and always with the greatest respect.
Governor Raffles’s taste for natural history was
very marked. During his visit to London,, before
coming here, he founded the Zoological Society, and
began the Zoological Gardens, which now form one
of the chief inducements to strangers to visit that
great and wealthy metropolis. When he sailed from
this port, his ship was nearly loaded with the animals
of the region, living and mounted, but, the
same evening, when not more than fifty miles from
the coast, she took fire, and her crew and passengers
barely escaped with their lives. Hot only all Sir
Stamford’s specimens, but all his official documents,
and the many private papers he had been gathering
during twelve years, were irreparably lost. Such a
strange fatality seems to attend the shipment of
specimens in natural history from the East, but I
trust that mine may be an exception to this rule.*
A p ril 20th.—Rode to Ujang Padang, a low bluff
about twenty feet high, on the north side of Bencoolen
Bay. It is composed of a stiff, red clay, resting
on other layers of lead-colored clay, which are
stratified, and contain many fossils of recent shells, a
few of which appeared in the lower strata of the red
clay. These fossiliferous strata probably extend for
some distance north and south, but are concealed by
the overlying strata of red clay, for they reappear
again at the foot of a bluff between this point and
Bencoolen.
From Cape Indrapura southward, a strip of low,
comparatively level land borders the shore, but north
of that point the ocean comes up to the bases of the
hills and mountains. South of that point there are
a few small islands near the shore, but north of it
* While this work is going to the press, the specimens referred to
have all arrived in perfect order, though the ship that brought them
was obliged to put in twice in distress, having one time been nearly
dismasted by a cyclone, that kept her on her beam ends for eight