Coffee Plantations. 255 



years, and was qnite as neat as tliose I had passed through, 

 and much more picturesque. It is placed on a small level spot, 

 from which there is an abrupt wooded descent down to the 

 beautiful lake of Tondano, with volcanic mountains beyond. 

 On one side is a ravine, and beyond it a fine mountainous and 

 wooded country. 



Near the village are the coffee plantations. The trees are 

 planted in rows, and are kept topped to about seven feet high. 

 This causes the lateral branches to grow very strong, so that 

 some of the trees become perfect hemispheres, loaded with 

 fruit from top to bottom, and producing from ten to twenty 

 pounds each of cleaned coffee annually. These plantations 

 were all formed by the Government, and are cultivated by the 

 villagers under the direction of their chief. Certain days are 

 appointed for weeding or gathering, and the. whole working 

 population are summoned by. sound of gong. An account is 

 kept of the number of hours' work done by each family, and 

 at the year's end the produce of the sale is divided among 

 them proportionately. The coffee is taken to Government 

 stores established at central places over the whole country, and 

 is paid for at a low fixed price. Out of this a certain percent- 

 age goes to the chiefs and majors, and the remainder is divided 

 among the inhabitants. This system works very well, and I 

 believe is at present far better for the people than free trade 

 would be. There are also large rice-fields, and in this little 

 village of seventy houses I was informed that a hundred 

 pounds' worth of rice was sold annually. 



I had a small house at the very end of the village, almost 

 hanging over the precipitous slope down to the stream, and 

 with a splendid view from the veranda. The thermometer 

 in the morning often stood at 62°, and never rose so high as 

 80° ; so that with the thin clothing used in the tropical plains 

 we were always cool, and sometimes positively cold, while the 

 spout of water where I went daily for my bath had quite an 

 icy feel. Although I enjoyed myself very much among these 

 fine mountains and forests, I was somewhat disappointed as 

 to my collections. There was hardly any perceptible differ- 

 ence between the animal life in this temperate region and in 

 the torrid plains below, and what difference did exist was in 

 most respects disadvantageous to me. There seemed to be 



