javanicus. This is about the size of a raven, and a troop of them in flight has very
much the look of a flock of crows, and by a stranger may be easily mistaken for one.
“ I may add,” says Dr. Oxley, “ In rendering a sketch of the zoology of Singapore,
several species of the bat tribe, and among them that most destructive one to all fruits,
the flying fox or Pteropus. Fortunately, however, they are as yet scarce, but at no
distance from us they are numerous beyond count. I have seen a flook of them
while anchored in the Straits of Malacca, so large as to take several hours in passing.
A colony is at present located in a mangrove creek at the head of the estuary of the
Jehore river. In the day they are seen asleep hanging in millions from the branches
of the mangrove. At sunset they begin to stir, and presently they ascend into the
air and wing their way to the south-east in one vast uninterrupted cloud. They pass
the whole night in the jungle and plantations devouring fruit, and as soon as dawn
begins to appear, they mount the air again and return to their roosting-place at the
head of the estuaiy. Their flesh is eaten by the natives, but no real fox smells to
my mind half so rank as they do. Methinks a rat would be palatable food compared
with them.” These bats, in so far as the orchard is concerned, are the locust of the
country, in which flights of the insect itself as far as I am aware are unknown. The
Pteromys, or flying squirrel, the krawak of the Malays, is very frequent in Singapore,
and so are three different species of monkey.
As with the larger quadrupeds, the larger birds of the Peninsula and Sumatra are
not found in Singapore. It has neither their peacocks, nor their pheasants, and the
only birds of the Rasorial family W'hich exist in it are two species of quail. Nearly
all the web-footed birds, whether indigenous or of passage, are not to be seen. There
are six different species of pigeon, from the size of our wood-pigeon to that of a
thrush. Parrots are frequent, but the species only two or three. The only bird
that can be called game is the snipe, which seems a stranger to no country in the
world that has marshes. The birds of prey of four different genera are sufficiently
numerous, and Dr. Oxley remarks that among birds of this family is “ that perfect
type of the true falcons, the beautiful little Falco caerulescens, which, although not
much larger than a sparrow, will kill and carry off a bird the size of a thrush.”
Among reptiles, alligators are common in the salt water creeks, and along the
shores of the island, but having an abundant supply of fish, are not troublesome to
man. The Iguana lizard, the bewak of the Malays, is not unfrequent, but the noisy
house lizard or tokay, the tfikd of the Malays, so common in Penang and so much more
so in Siam, is not found in Singapore. The esculent turtle is very abundant along the
shores of Singapore and the neighbouring islands, and being, as food, restricted to
the European and Chinese population, is the cheapest animal food in the market,
one of the largest weighing several hundred weights selling for six or seven shillings.
“ Snakes,” says Dr. Oxley, “ are not numerous. The most common is a dark cobra.
I believe this with a trigonoeephalus are the only well-authenticated venomous
species on the island. The first possesses the peculiar property of ejecting venom
from its mouth. The Malays say there is no cure for its bite. I have seen it prove
fatal to a fowl in two or three minutes, but have not observed its effects on large
animals. Those I have killed have measured from 4^ to 5? feet in leDgth. This
reptile being slow and sluggish is easily overtaken and killed. When attacked, it
erects the body and dilates the skin on either side of the head, uttering a noise like
that of an irritated cat. If attacked it throws, to the distance of from six to eight
feet, a venomous fluid of a most poisonous quality.” Fish and crustaceans are in
great plenty, and Dr. Oxley has enumerated forty species of them as seen by himself.
About half-a-dozen of these are excellent for the table, fully equal to the best fish of
our own coasts. Among these the best is the white pomfret of Europeans, the
bawal-puteh of the Malays, of richer flavour than our soles and less luscious than the
turbot.
The agriculture of Singapore, although conducted with sufficient spirit and activity,
is limited to a small number of objects, and nearly excludes all the cereal grasses and
pulses constituting the staple articles of human food. The soil of the island, with
very few exceptions, is like that of the adjoining peninsula, unfertile,—there is no
natural, and therefore no cheap source of irrigation, and hence the land is incapable
of furnishing a cheap supply of the main necessaries of life, which are yielded only
within the Archipelago by rich volcanic or alluvial soils, assisted by a copious
perennial irrigation. For such plants as rice, the sugar-cane, the indigo-plant, pulses,
maiz, tobacco, cotton, the soil must be considered as ill-suited. Besides want of
fertility of soil, Singapore wants sufficient elevation to give a climate fit for the
production of coffee. Even the nutmeg thrives only when forced by rich dressings,
and the clove does not succeed at all. On the other hand, all plants which
depend more on heat and moisture than on soil, flourish luxuriantly, such as the
oooo and areca palms, with the Unoaria jgambir, which is indigenous. Black
pepper, which is a long-naturalised exotic, although it answers well, yet even it
requires some manuring. In 1854, the quantity of pepper produced amounted to
3 116,533 pounds, and the betel or areca nut to above 40,000 cwts. Among the
plants congenial to both soil and climate are most of the intertropical fruits, whether
indigenous or exotic. Among these the most easily reared, and even cheaper than
the banana is the pine-apple, equalling in size and flavour the finest productions of
our hot-houses. Besides fruits, the soil and climate are well adapted to the production
of the yam and igname, and to that of the coarse pot-herbs which belong to the
latitude.
The following judicious remarks are made by Mr. Logan on the soil of Singapore :
“ The soil is much more varied than it was supposed to be in former years, and so
far from consisting entirely of decomposed sandstone and clay-iron ore, it contains a
plutonic (granitic) tract of about sixty square miles, and another in which shales predominate.
Although the soils have not the fertility of the volcanic and calcareous
ones which occur in many parts of the Indian Archipelago, they are covered with an
indigenous vegetation of great vigour and luxuriance, supporting numbers of animals
of different species. The hills of plutonic rock support dense and continuous forests
composed of more than 200 species of trees, many of which are of great size. So long
as the iron is not in such excess as to recompose the clay into stone, or render it hard,
those soils which contain most iron are most fertile. The purely, or highly felspathic
are the worst. But even felspathic soils, when intermixed with a sufficient proportion
of quartz, are, in this estimate, capable of producing an abundant vegetation.
Although it is obvious to every observer that there is no kind of soil in the island
for which nature has not provided plants, that flourish luxuriantly in it, yet it must
not be hastily concluded, as some have done, that this exuberant vegetation indicates
a general fertility in the soil. It is found, on the contrary, when the native plants
are destroyed, and the land is employed for agriculture, that there are very few soils
in which cultivated plants not indigenous to the region, but whose climatic range
embraces it, will flourish spontaneously. While the coco-nut, areca, sago, gomuti, and
the numerous Malayan fruits succeed with little care, the nutmeg and clove are
stunted, and almost unproductive, unless carefully cultivated and highly manured.
Yet the climate is perfectly adapted to them. Place them in the rare spots where
there is naturally a fertile soil, or create one artificially, and the produce is equal to
that of trees in the Molucca plantations. With respect to indigenous plants, gambier,
pepper, and all the fruits flourish on the Plutonic hills, provided they are not too
deficient in iron and quartz. The hills of violet shale, where they are not too sandy,
are equal to the best Plutonic soils,—those, namely, in which there is a sufficient
proportion of hard granules to render them -friable, and sufficient iron to render them
highly absorptive of water, without becoming plastic. Of all the sedimentary soils,
the sandstone and very arenaceous shales furnish the worst. Of the alluvial soils,
the sand, particularly when it contains a mixture of vegetable matter, or triturated
shells, is the proper soil of the coco-nut and the vegetable mud of the sago. When
the country has been better and longer drained and cultivated, the latter soil will
become a rich mould. At present it is too wet and sour to make a fertile soil. Rice
is grown on some patches of it. The bluish sea mud contains good ingredients, but
the clay is in excess, and the animal matter in it appears to assist in rendering it hard
and intractable, when it is not saturated with water. Even for such soils, however,
nature has provided plants useful to man, for the areca and some of the indigenous
fruit trees grow well in it with little cultivation. Although there are cultivated
plants adapted to every kind of soil in the island, and it has indigenous tribes of man
who can live exclusively on its yams, sago, fish, and wild animals, it is incapable of
feeding a population of the more civilised races, and the latter must always be
dependent on other countries for the great necessary of life—rice.”
In the husbandry of Singapore, neither plough, harrow, nor spade are employed.
All is done with the hoe and mattock. The whole is, in fact, a garden culture, in
which no great crop is cultivated giving scope for the plough, and which is perhaps
best performed by the hoe, the congenial and habitual implement, for this purpose,
of all Asiatic nations. With respect to tenures, wild lands, when alienated by the
government, are granted in fee simple, on payment of thirty shillings an acre, if
within two miles of the town, and of one-half that amount, if beyond this distance.
At this simple arrangement the government arrived at last, after the higgling and