vil] GUNONG API. 151 



forest reaches nearly to the summit, which is formed by two bare 

 peaks. The diversity of colouring was wonderful, and both in this 

 and other respects the island bore a singular resemblance to 

 Madeira. The presence of a few white houses dotted over the 

 hills was alone wanting to make it almost complete. 



Our object in visiting the island was chiefly to procure water, 

 for that obtainable in Macassar, which was to be our next port, 

 was, we were warned, of bad quality, and in cruising in these 

 climates it is of the first importance that the drinking water 

 should be pure. We tried at two or three places without success, 

 but on despatching a boat ashore when off the W.N.W. point, the 

 boatswain retiu'ned with the intelligence that there was a spring 

 close to the sea, so we at once landed to inspect it. The 

 ground was dry and dusty even in the gullies, but between high 

 and low water mark rapid runlets of clear water streamed out for 

 a distance of three or four hundred yards along the beach. It 

 would, however, have taken a long time to fill our tanks, and we 

 decided to defer that operation until we discovered a better place. 

 We found many natives on the island, and one of those we met 

 was able to understand Malay. They are Sumbawans who have 

 immigrated from the adjoining coast, and speak one of the two 

 Bima dialects. We picked up the skull of a large pig, and the 

 natives also told us that there were numbers of deer on the island. 

 That snakes of a very respectable size also existed we infen^ed from 

 our finding a piece of the shed skin of one of them, which measured 

 over seven feet in length. Among our ornithological spoil was a 

 quail of a new species {Turnix powelli), which I have since named 

 after my friend Lieut. E. ff. Powell, E.N., who accompanied the 

 Marchesa in her voyages to Kamschatka and New Guinea. 



At our next anchorage, about two miles farther along the coast, 

 we were more fortunate in our search for water, the proximity of 

 which was evident from the presence of a rather large \Tllage of 

 scattered huts. The most marked feature in the vegetation here 

 was the large number of Palmyra palms {Borassus), — a rather coarse- 



