SWAMPS. 137 



trees are found, on a nearer view, to be curious 

 in their growth, and some of them valuable for 

 their timber ; on their elevated summits, ferns 

 of the genera Achrosticum, Asplenium, &c., or 

 several parasitical Orchideous plants, are seen 

 growing in profusion. 



The settlement and island of Singapore is 

 considered very salubrious. The small-pox, how- 

 ever, has lately been committing great and deadly 

 ravages among the native residents ; of these, 

 however, there were none upon whom vaccination 

 had been performed. Many have been sur- 

 prised at the healthy state of Singapore as a re- 

 sidence, when it is so near the equator, and the 

 town surrounded by swamps, and even built 

 upon a swamp ; but I have had occasion to re- 

 mark more than once, that when the swamps re- 

 sult from salt-water creeks, the miasmata pro- 

 ducing fever are not generated, as from fresh- 

 water marshes, which usually abound in a very 

 profuse and rank vegetation ; and Singapore 

 may be said to be entirely destitute of rivers, 

 the absence of which, however, is compensated 

 by numerous salt-water creeks about the coasts, 

 some of them extending inland for the distance 

 of several miles. There is no deficiency, how- 

 ever, of good fresh water, which is procured 

 from rivulets and springs, abundant about the 

 island. 



