than a square mile in extent, and in all my subsequent
travels in the East I rarely if ever met with so productive
a spot. This exceeding productiveness was due in part no
doubt to some favourable conditions in the soil, climate,
and vegetation, and to the season being very bright and
sunny, with sufficient showers to keep everything fresh.
But it was also in a great measure dependent, I feel sure,
on the labours of the Chinese wood-cutters. They had
been at work here for several years, and during all that
time had furnished a continual supply of dry and dead and
decaying leaves and bark, together with abundance of
wood and sawdust, for the nourishment of insects and
their larvae. This had led to the assemblage of a great
variety of species in a limited space, and I was the first
naturalist who had come to reap the harvest they had
prepared. In the same place, and during my walks in
other directions, I obtained a fair collection of butterflies
and of other orders of insects, so that on the whole
I was quite satisfied with these my first attempts to
gain a knowledge of the Natural History of the Malay
Archipelago.
CHAPTEE III.
MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR.
(JULY TO SEPTEMBER, 1854.)
~p)IRDS and most other kinds of animals being scarce at
Singapore, I left it in July for Malacca, where I spent
more than two months in the interior, and made an excursion
to Mount Ophir. The old and picturesque town
of Malacca is crowded along the banks of the small river,
and consists of narrow streets of shops and dwelling-
houses, occupied by the descendants of the Portuguese,
and by Chinamen. In the suburbs are the houses of the
English officials and of a few Portuguese merchants,
embedded in groves of palms and fruit-trees, whose varied
and beautiful foliage furnishes a pleasing relief to the eye,
as well as most grateful shade.
The old fort, the large Government House, and the ruins
of a cathedral, attest the former wealth and importance
of this place, which was once as much the centre of
Eastern trade as Singapore is now. The following description
of it by Linschott, who wrote two hundred and