266 NOTES WRITTEN ON A VOYAGE 
trees have received this same name of Rangas : one is an enormous tree, 
growing also by the rivers, but quite in the interior; the other is also 
a large tree, of which I have seen neither fruit nor flower. It yields a 
red and dark brown veined wood, largely used for common furniture at 
Singapore. The bark of all three, and indeed of several other trees of 
the tribe, yields copiously a limpid juice, changing rapidly to a black 
varnish. This juice is exceedingly venomous, blistering the skin 
severely, and leaving foul little ulcers very difficult to heal. The trees 
are now beginning to be clothed with parasitical Ferns; there are also a 
— few small Orchidee, chiefly Dendrobia and Appendicule, and abundance 
of the ubiquitous Dendrobium erumenatum. The current came down so 
strong about nine A.M., that we were obliged to anchor. I saw now 
the first alligators; one enormous fellow I fired at, and, I suppose, hit, 
for he threw his huge body quite out of the water with a tremendous 
splash. The natives say an alligator never recovers from a wound, 
however small; he has nothing to scratch himself with, his feet being 
too short; and they say that the flies in the air, and the small fish in 
the water, never leave him a moment’s peace: so that the wound 
becomes larger and larger. I have indeed seen an alligator which I 
shot through the leg, taken two or three days afterwards, with almost 
_ the whole shoulder sloughed away, so that the story may be true. The 
quantity of monkeys seen here is wonderful. 1 only know the names 
of two, Nasalis larvatus, a horribly ugly animal, and Hylobates concolor, 
frequently trained by the Malays to gather fruit; but there are many 
. other species:—the Moniet; the Sipai, a beautiful little black fellow with 
white stockings and long gloves; the Lotong, a frightful animal, with 
a scowling face and grizzled black hair; the Wa Wa, or long-armed 
ape ; the Orang Hutan (this is the proper spelling : it is literally ** man 
: of the woods ”); the Ungku, which fills the whole country in the early 
morning with a most frightful howling, the most unearthly noise I 
have ever heard. We passed to day many clear spaces covered with 
long grass, species of Anthistiria and Saccharum ; these are the favourite 
feeding grounds of the elephants. The seed of the Anthistiria contains 
a good deal of farina, and must be very nutritious. These places, I 
was told, ae formerly settlements, driven away by the tyranny of the 
— Met a prahu today going to Singapore with gutta-percha; 
all of second-rate quality. The Nakoda told me T should not reach 
he Rajah’s village for three days more. T took the opportunity of send- 
