MODE OF NAVIGATING MUD-FLATS. 57 



the aiicliorage, and the narrow straits tliat connect it 

 witli the sea. These straits, thougli narrow, are not 

 dangerous, and this may be said to be tlie only good 

 harbor that is frequented on the island of Java. On 

 the south coast, at Chilachap, there is a safe and well- 

 sheltered anchorage, but it has very little trade. 



At evening, when the water is ebbing, flocks of 

 white herons range themselves in lines along its re- 

 treating edge, and calmly await the approach of some 

 unlucky fish. Then the fishing-boats come up from the 

 east, spreading out their white sails, and foiTaing a 

 counterpart to the lines of white herons along the 

 shore. 



The natives, unable to walk to their huts on the 

 banks, have a most novel and rapid mode of navigating 

 these mud-flats. A board about two feet wide, five or 

 six feet long, and curved up at one end like the run- 

 ner of a sled, is placed on the soft mud, and the fish- 

 erman rests the left knee on it while he kicks with 

 the right foot, in just the way that boys push them- 

 selves on their sleds over ice or snow. In this way 

 tliey go as fast as a man would walk on solid ground. 



Like Bata\^a and Samarang, Surabaya* is sit- 

 uated on both sides of a small river, on low land, 

 but not in a morass, like the old city of Batavia, 

 and yet much nearer the shipping. This river has 

 ])een changed into a canal by walling in its banks. 

 Near its entrance it is lined on one side with nice 



* The population of the Eesidency of Surabaya, which also includes 

 that of the city of the same name, is 1,278,600. Of these, 5,124 are Eu- 

 ropeans, ],2<)1,271 are natives, 7,<)03 are Chinese, 1,477 are Arabs, and 

 ■J, 125 are from other Eastern nations. 



