LOSS OF GOVERNOR RAFFLES'S COLLECTIOX. 489 



this port, his ship was nearly loaded with the ani- 

 mals of the region, living and mounted, but, the 

 same evening, when not more than fifty miles from 

 the coast, she took fire, and her crew and passengers 

 barely escaped with their lives. Not only all Sir 

 Stamford's specimens, but all his official documents, 

 and the many private papers he had been' gathering 

 during twelve years, were irreparably lost. Such a 

 strange fatality seems to attend the shij^ment of 

 specimens in natural history from the East, but I 

 trust that mine may be an exception to this rule.* 



April 20tJi. — Rode to Ujang Padang, a low bluff 

 about twenty feet high, on the north side of Ben- 

 coolen Bay. It is composed of a stiff, red clay, rest- 

 ing on other layers of lead-colored clay, which are 

 stratified, and contain many fossils of recent shells, a 

 few of which appeared in the lower strata of the red 

 clay. These fossiliferous strata probably extend for 

 some distance north and south, but are concealed by 

 the overlying strata of red clay, for they reappear 

 again at the foot of a bluff between this point and 

 Bencoolen. 



From Cape Indrapura southward, a strip of low, 

 comparatively level land borders the shore, but north 

 of that point the ocean comes up to the bases of the 

 hills and mountains. South of that point there are 

 a few small islands near the shore, but north of it 



* While this work is going to the press, the specimens referred to 

 liave all arrived in perfect order, though the ship that brought them 

 was obliged to put in twice in distress, having one time been nearly 

 dismasted by a cyclone, that kept her on her beam ends for eight 

 hours. 



