troduce it into India and also into the West Indies.
Its Malay name dv/rian comes from d/wri, a thorn, and
is thus applied on account of the sharp, thorny points
of the pyramidal tubercles that cover its shell. The
fact, that the Malay name is the one used wherever
the fruit is known, indicates that it originated in a
Malay country, and this view is. strengthened by the
circumstance that, while I was crossing Sumatra, I
passed through large forests mostly composed of
these trees in the high lands near the sources of the
Palembang River.
Another far-famed fruit is the bread-fruit. It grows
on a tree, the Artoca/rpus mcisa, which attains a height
of forty or fifty feet. It will be noticed at once by the
stranger, on account of its enormous, sharply-lobed
leaves, which are frequently a foot wide and a foot
and a half long. The fruit has nearly the form of a
melon, and is attached by its stem directly to the
trunk or limbs. It is regarded of little value by the
Malays, but farther east, in the Society Islands, and
other parts of the South Sea, it furnishes the natives
with their chief sustenance. Just before it is ripe it
is cut into slices and fried, and eaten with a thick,
black molasses, obtained by boiling down the sap of
the gomuti-palm. When prepared in this manner it
tastes somewhat like a potato, except that it is very
fibrous. The seeds of this fruit in the South Sea
are said, when roasted, to be as nice as chestnuts, but
I never saw the Malays make any use of them. From
the Pacific Islands it has been introduced into the
West Indies and tropical America. Another species
of this genus, the A . mtegrifolia, bears the huge
“jack-fruit,” which very closely resembles the breadfruit.
Sometimes it attains a weight of nearly seventy
five pounds, so that one is a good load for a coolie.
The only part which the natives eat is a sweet,
pulpy substance enveloping each seed.
June 1 Qth.—This morning the gigantic mountain
on Bali, Gunung Agung, or “ The Great Mountain,”
towered up abeam of us against the southern sky.
According to Mr. Crawfurd it attains an elevation of
twelve thousand three hundred and seventy-nine feet,
or four hundred and thirty-three feet higher than the
far-famed Peak of Teneriffe.
These mountains are only a continuation of the
chain which traverses Java, and Bali may be regarded
as almost a part of Java, as it has quite the same flora
and fauna, and is only separated from that island by
a narrow strait. Here the Asiatic fauna of Sumatra,
Borneo, and Java reaches its most eastern boundary.
On Lombok, the next island eastward, a wholly different
fauna is seen, having well-marked affinities
with that of Australia. According to the traditions
of the Javanese, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, and
Sumbawa, were all formerly united, and afterward
separated into nine different parts, and when three
thousand rainy reasons shall have passed away they
will be reunited. The dates of these separations are
given as follows:
Palembang (the eastern end of Sumatra) from
Java, a . d . 1192.
Bali from Balembangan (the eastern end of Java),
a . d . 1282.
Lombok from Sumbawa, a . d . 1350.