which it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous. All
the specimens sold in Malacca are caught in snares, and
my informant, though he had shot none, had snared
plenty.
The tiger and rhinoceros are still found here, and a few
years ago elephants abounded, but they have lately all
disappeared. We found some heaps of dung, which
seemed to be that of elephants, and some tracks of the
rhinoceros, but saw none of the animals. We, however,
kept a fire up all night in case any of these creatures
should visit us, and two of our men declared that they did
one day see a rhinoceros, When our rice was finished, and
our boxes full of specimens, we returned to Ayer-Panas,
and a few days afterwards went on to Malacca, and thence
to Singapore. Mount Ophir has quite a reputation for
fever, and all our friends were astonished at our recklessness
in staying so long at its foot; but we none of us
suffered in the least, and I shall ever look back with
pleasure to my trip, as being my first introduction to
mountain scenery in the Eastern tropics.
The meagreness and brevity of the sketch I have here
given of my visit to Singapore and the Malay Peninsula
is due to my having trusted chiefly to some private letters
and a note-book, which were lo st; and to a paper on
Malacca and Mount Ophir which was sent to the Eoyal
Geographical Society, but which was neither read nor
printed owing to press of matter at the end of a session,
and the MSS. of which cannot now be found. I the less
regret this, however, as so many works have been written
on these parts ; and I always intended to pass lightly
over my travels in the western and better known portions
of the Archipelago, in order to devote more space to the
remoter districts, about which hardly anything has been
written in the English language.