129 



The hill sides, to a very considerable height, have been much 

 denuded of their original timber, little control being exercised over 

 the local population, whicli annually destroys much jungle for the 

 plantations of hill rice, which, when abandoned, are overgrown with 

 a worthless secondary growth of bamboo and thorny shrubs. 



The population is large, and was said by the local magistx-ate to 

 exceed 8,000 people, who subsist by the growth of rice and fruit, large 

 quantities of coconuts being exported to Bangkok, and fruit, principally 

 arecanuts and mangoes, to Bandon. Many pigs are reared by the local 

 population but little fishing is done and the island afford but few 

 supplies to the European visitor, even bananas and fowls being scarce 

 and hard to obtain. On the north coast a small lode of wolfram ore has 

 of late years been worked but has not proved commercially successful. 

 The coasts of the island seems to be formed of schists, gneisses and other 

 metamorphic rocks, but the central core and the taller hills are granite. 



Koh Pennan, 1 situated to the north of Koh Samui, separated 

 from it by a channel about eight miles wide cari-ying a maximum 

 depth of nine fathoms, is considerably smaller than the latter island, 

 being roughly elliptical in shape with a long diameter of about ten 

 miles and a short one of about six. Tt rises to about the same height, 

 but the sui"face, generally speaking, is more rugged and there is not 

 nearly the same proportion of flat land, except on the south coast. 

 The population is considerably smaller but a large amount of copra 

 and coconuts are produced, which are shipped to Bangkok. As in 

 Koh Samui, the population is almost exclusively Siamese, though 

 there are a certain number of trading Chinamen from Bangkok and 

 the adjacent mainland. Malay is not spoken or undei'stood on either 

 island and we had great difficulty in obtaining an interpreter who 

 knew even a few woi^ds of the language. 



We collected at three localities on Koh Samui, at : 

 (1). Klong Pah Yie towards the northern end of the west coast 

 where we stayed from May 6th to May 13th, the suiTounding 

 country being mainly coconuts, rice fields, grazing ground or 

 secondary jungle ; 



(2) On the headwatei's of a stream rising in the centre of the island, 



in the middle of the onl}' considerable area of virgin jungle, 

 on the island, wher^e we built a camp and collected fi-om 

 May 15th to May 17th ; and 



(3) On a bay near the N.E. coast which proved singularly 



uninteresting and unhealthy and at which we only stopped 



from Ma}' 18th to May 23rd. 

 On Koh Pennan we had one station only, near the S.W. corner 

 of the island, where we established ourselves in a comfortable 

 tin -roofed " sala " built by a pious Siamese, staying from May 24th 

 to June 1st when we set sail for the mainland of Bandon which we 

 reached after a rather irksome journey of three days. 



' Known also as Punorun and Punsrunn. 



