last, which embraces the greater portion of the island of sand-stone, slate, and clay
iron-ore. The only metallic ore that exists in abundance, and this is very rich, is
that of iron. The island lies also in the formation most favourable for the existence
of tin, namely, between the junction of the granite and sand-stone, but no ore of it
has as yet been discovered. The blue clays furnish an excellent material for bricks
and tiles; and the decomposed feldspar of the granite the finest kaolin which has
vet been seen in India, but it has not been applied to the manufacture of porce-
lane. Some portion of the island, as that which is the site of the town, is of alluvial
formation, chiefly sand with a very thin covering of vegetable mould.
The climate of the island is well described by Mi'. Thomson, m the Journal of the
Indian Archipelago. “ Singapore,” says he, “ though within 80 miles of the equator,
Z Z abundance of moisture, either deposited by the dews or gentle refresh ng
showers, which keeps its atmosphere cool, prevents the parching effects of the
sun, and promotes continual verdure. It never experiences furious gales. If more
than ordinary heat has accumulated moisture and electricity, a squall generally sets
in followed by a heavy shower of rain; such squalls seldom exceeding one or two
hours in duration. According as the monsoon blows, you will have the squalls
coming from that direction. But the most severe and numerous are from the southwest
called ‘Sumatras,’ and these occur, most frequently, between 1 and 5 o clock
in the morning. The north-east monsoon blows from November to March; after
which the wind veers round to the south-east and gradually sets in the south-west,
at which point it continues to September. The north-east blows more steadily than
the south-west monsoon. The temperature is by one or two degrees cooler m the
first than in the last.” The average fall of rain is found, from the observation of a
series of years, to be 92-697 inches; and the average number of days m the year in
which rain falls is found to be 180, thus dividing the year almost equally between
wet and dry: the rain not being continuous, but pretty equally distributed thiough
the whole year, January, however, being the month m which the greatest quantity
falls. The mean temperature of Singapore is, at present, 81 '217, the lowest being
79°-55 and the highest 82°'31, so that the range is no more than 2 -76. « would
appear from this that the temperature of the island is by 9 90 lower than that of
many other localities in the same latitudes. Comparing the temperature now stated
with that which was ascertained 20 years earlier, and in the infancy of the settlement,
it would appear that it had increased by 2° 48', a fact ascnbable, no doubt, to the
increase of buildings, and to the country having been cleared of forest for three miles
inland from tlie town, the site of the observations. The general character of the
climate as to temperature is, that the heat is great and continuous, but never excessive
and that there is little distinction of seasons; summer and winter differing from
each other only by one or two degrees of the thermometer. Thunder showers are
of frequent occurrence, but the thunder is by no means so severe as L have experienced
it in Java, and seldom destructive to life or property. ‘ That interesting and
wonderful phenomenon, called a water spout,” says Mr. Thomson, is often to be seen
in the seas and straits adjacent. They ought more properly to be called whirlwinds
charged with vapour. They occur, generally, in the morning between the hours ot
eight and twelve, and rise to the height of half a mile, appearing in the distance
like large columns supporting the heavy masses of cumuli above them. I noticed m
October 1841, six of these attached to one cloud, under action at the same time.
In August, 1838, one passed over the harbour and town of Singapore, devastating
one ship and sinking another; and carrying off the corner of the roof of a house in
its course landward. No other atmospherical disturbances of any moment occur.
The tvphoons of the China Sea and Bay of Bengal do not reach those parts, nor are
there hot winds to parch the land. The equable and quiet state of the atmosphere
and seasons of these regions, consequently create analogous properties in the face of
indigenous vegetation. Evergreens abound; few trees shed all their leaves at the
same tim e; and many of the fruit trees produce all the year round Such as have
their seasons of fruit will produce crops out of season, bearing small irregular ones
at intervening times. This continual verdure is, perhaps, more grateful to the
stranger than to those who have been accustomed to it. To the former it bears the
pleasant appearance of exuberance and fecundity,—of a region where the lofty forest
not only hangs over the beach, but clothes the mountains to their tops, so unlike the
sterile barrenness of higher latitudes. To the latter, the continual sameness palls
the senses. They want variety, and call for a sterile winter, only that they may renew,
with doubly keen perception, their acquaintance with the beauties of returnmg
summer, a season that always here reigns.”
Notwithstanding its heat and its monotony, the climate of Singapore is even
remarkable for its salubrity; and with, perhaps, the exception of a few little-
frequented spots in the interior, it is certamly free from the malaria which often
infects countries, apparently more favourably circumstanced. This advantage it
seems to owe to its perfect ventilation by the monsoons,—by land and sea-breezes,—
and by frequent squalls. That this is the main cause is proved by the eminently
pestiferous air of a land-locked harbour at the western end of the island, and not
above two miles distant from the town.
A popular view of the botany of Singapore has been given by Dr. Oxley, a man of
science, and long familiar with the place. “ If nature,” says he, “ has been frugal
in her gifts of the higher orders of the animal kingdom in Singapore, she has lavished
with unsparing prodigality, the riches of the vegetable one. Notwithstanding the
infertility of the soil, climate more than compensates for the loss : heat and moisture
cover the lean earth with unceasing verdure; and we realise, what fancy paints as the
most desirable of all climates,—an eternal spring. But independently of its position,
the botany of this place possesses several other interesting considerations. Being a
connecting link between the Indian and Australian forms, we have types of both, and
many genera of either region. We observe the Indian forms in the natural families
Palmse, Scitamine®, Aroidese, Artocarpe», Euphorbiace», Apooyne®, Guttifer®,
Convolvulaceae, Leguminosae, all numerous. The natural families Casuarineae, Myr-
taceae, particularly Melaleucae and Proteaceae, connect us with Australia.”
“ The plants,” he observes, “ which usually spring up when the primeval forest
has been cut down; and where the bane of all the rest of the vegetable kingdom, the
Andropogon caricosum, or Lalang grass, has not taken possession, belong to the following
genera: Melastoma, Myrtus, Morinda, Solanum, Rubus, Rottlera, Cleroden-
drum, Commersonia, Ficus, and Passiflora. The jungle, with the exception of its
outskirts, is unexplorable, without great risk, from the number of tigers; but I have
collected between forty and fifty orchideous plants, including epiphytal and terrestrial,
and about the same number of ferns. Fici are extremely numerous. Of palms
I have not seen more than twenty species, although, I believe, there are a much
greater number. The most interesting of these, in an economic point of view, are the
coco-nut, the Areca catechu or pinang, the Areca sigillaria or nibung, the Sagus 1 arris
or rambuja, the Nipa frutieans or nipa, and the Gomutus or iju. Of the natural
families which most abound, the Asclepiade®, Euphorbiace*, Seitamine*, and Urti-
caceae are the chief.” The forest contains an immense number of species of timber
trees, most of them of great height and growth. Above two hundred have been
eolleeted, and of these about half-a-dozen afford good timber for house and boat
building. The teak is not of the number. The forest, also, produces the two species
which yield the useful gutta-percha, and a fig which affords an elastic gum. But
for use these articles, as well as timber, are not obtained from Singapore itself,
but from the wider and more accessible forests of the neighbouring continent.
The zoology of Singapore is that of the neighbouring continent, to the exclusion
of some of the larger animals, as the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tapir, and the ox.
The largest feline animal indigenous to the island is a small leopard, called by the
Malays arimau-daan, that is “ the branch” or climbing tiger. But the tiger, an
animal unknown to the island in the earlier years of the British settlement, made its
first appearance five or six years after it waB formed, and is now too abundant. It
seems to have crossed over from the continent, attracted no doubt by the sound of
human voices and the lowing of cattle. I t has multiplied greatly, and is supposed
to destroy, yearly, from two to three hundred persons, proving the greatest bane of
the settlement. Large rewards have been offered for the destruction of tigers, and a
good number have been captured by pitfalls, but all attempts at their extermination
have been unsuccessful and are likely long to prove so in this still forest-clad island,
parted from a region in which the tiger is abundant by a channel of no more than a
few furlongs broad. The channel between Penang and the main is two miles broad,
and this has been sufficient to exclude the tiger, for although there have been
examples of individuals having crossed over, it has been in an exhausted state, and
they have been immediately destroyed.
Of the natural family of Mustelid®, there are two in Singapore, the musang of the
Malays, Paradoxurus musanga, and the binturung, Ictides ater, of the size of a
badger. Otters are occasionally seen along the coasts, but are rare. The wild hog
is frequent, and there are five species of deer, the usual ones of the Peninsula and
Sumatra, from the Rusa of the size of a heifer to the kanchil, which is hardly as
large as a rabbit. Among mammals, one species of bat is often to be seen, the same
which is so frequent in almost all parts of the Archipelago, the kalong or Pteropus