316 Mr. J. D. de La Touclie on 



matiou about Bangkimtsing, a village some 25 miles E. of 

 TakoWj which I had been recommended to visit. 



November 10th. Fine, not too hot. I left towards 6 a.m. 

 in the boat Father Giner had sent to take me across the 

 lagoon to Chimkim. I saw, flying over the marshes, a pair of 

 striped Harriers {Circus spilonotus) and two Spoonbills, and 

 past Chimkim I noticed a few Crested Mynahs. The road 

 from Chimkim to Bangkimtsing leads through an entirely 

 flat country, some low hills bounding the horizon on the N. 

 and S.W. Rice is the chief crop near Takow, but there are 

 also fields of sugar-cane, sweet potatoes, and ground-nuts ; 

 and just outside Pithan, a market-town six miles from Takow, 

 there were some market-gardens. Beyond Pithan there seems 

 to be more sugar, and the country began to get more and more 

 arid, till we reached a wild sandy waste, scantily covered with 

 long, coarse grass, which was now quite dry and burnt up by 

 the summer heat. So far as I could make out, this desert 

 extends on the N. to the low hills, offshoots of the higher 

 ranges, and on the S. to the neighbourhood of the sea. We 

 went through this waste land for may be an hour, and then 

 reached the Tangkang Biver. Its sandy and shallow bed 

 is, at this season, merely a wide stretch of black sand, 

 divided by several streams, all easily fordable, except the 

 farthest one, which we crossed on a large bamboo raft. 

 Towards 3 p.m. we halted at another large village called 

 Bantam, to which a few brick houses gave a look of impor- 

 tance. Some natives told me it was two '^ pu '' (six miles) 

 from Bangkimtsing ; others said three " pu.^^ 1 am inclined 

 to think it is more than ten miles. Another river which we 

 had to cross proved very treacherous, as there were numerous 

 quicksands in it. We experienced some difficulty in getting 

 across, the carriers not knowing the way over, and my bag- 

 gage narrowly escaped a wetting. From this river to the 

 mountains the country was a vast rice-field, divided off at 

 intervals by stretches of bamboo-grove surrounding villages. 

 At 6 P.M. we reached our destination. 



Bangkimtsing lies at a distance of a mile and a half from 

 the mountains. It is a pretty village, and, like the other 



