60 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



liglitness and strength. The leather is made by the 

 natives from hides of the sap% or cattle of Madura, 

 the only kind seen here in Surabaya. It is light and 

 flexible, and somewhat spongy compared to that 

 made from our Northern hides. When it is wet it 

 " spots," the wet places taking a darker color, which 

 they retain when the leather again becomes dry. The 

 director of the works thought that these defects might 

 be remedied by adopting some other mode of tanning 

 it. The leather made from the hide of the buifalo 

 is thin, and, at the same time, excessively rigid. 



The streets of Surabaya are narrow compared to 

 those of Batavia ; but they are far better provided 

 with shade-trees of different species, among which 

 the tamarind, with its highly compound leaves, ap- 

 pears to be the favorite. Here, as in all the other chief 

 cities of the archipelago, the dusty streets are usually 

 sprinkled by coolies, who carry about two large wa- 

 tering-pots. In the centre of the city, on an open 

 square, is the opera-house, a large, well-proportioned 

 building, neatly painted and frescoed within. In the 

 suburbs is the public garden, nicely laid out, and 

 abounding in richly-flowering shrubs. There were a 

 number of birds peculiar to the East : a cassowary 

 from Ceram, a black-swan from Australia, and some 

 beautiful wild pheasants ( Galhis) from Madura. Of 

 this genus, Gallus^ there are two wild species on that 

 island and in Java. One of these, Gallus ha/nhiva^ 

 is also found in Sumatra and the peninsula of Ma- 

 lacca. A third sj)ecies is found in the Philippines, but 

 none is yet known in the great islands of Borneo and 

 Celebes or in any of the islands eastward. On the 



