ENTERING THE JAVA SEA. 19 



tucked under the part passing around tlie body, so 

 as to foiTQ a rude knot. Tkere is a man in the stern, 

 sitting with liis feet under him, steering the canoe, 

 and at the same time helping it onward with his 

 paddle. He is dressed in a close-fitting red shirt ? 

 No ! He is not encumbered mth any clothing ex- 

 cept what Nature has j)roYided for him, save a nar- 

 row cloth about his loins, the usual working-costume 

 of the coolies, or poorer classes. He brings several 

 kinds of bananas, green cocoa-nuts, and the " pom- 

 pelmus," which is a gigantic orange, from six to 

 eight inches in diameter. He seems perfectly happy, 

 and talks with the most surprising rapidity. From 

 an occasional word that may be half English, we 

 suppose, like traders in the Western world, he is 

 speaking in no moderate manner of the value of 

 what he has to sell. 



Mount Karang, back of Angir, now comes into 

 view, raising its crest of green foliage to a height of 

 five thousand feet ; a light breeze takes us round Cape 

 St. Nicholas, the northwest extremity of Java. It is a 

 high land, with sharp ridges coming down to the 

 water, thus forming a series of little rocky headlands, 

 separated by small sandy bays. These, as we sail 

 along, come up, and open to our view ^^dth a most 

 charming panoramic effect. Near the shore a few 

 Malays are seen on their praus, or large boats, while 

 others appear in groups on the beaches, around theii 

 canoes, and only now and then do we catch glimpses 

 of their rude houses under the feathery leaves of the 

 cocoa-nut palm. 



We are in the Java Sea. It seems very strange 



