152 S UMBA WA . [chap. vii. 



stemmed tree crowned with a disproportionately small bvmch of 

 fan -shaped fronds, — which, though conspicuous enough in those 

 parts of the island that we visited, more especially from the fact 

 that dead ones were exceedingly numerous, do not so often attract 

 the notice of the traveller in the islands farther west. Like some 

 other palms, it flowers but once, and dies immediately afterwards. 

 Behind the village a tremendous gorge leads steeply upwards 

 towards the peaks, through which in the rainy season a large body 

 of water must find its way to the sea. The prolonged drought had 

 reduced the stream to a mere rivulet, which flowed through a 

 wilderness of huge boulders, but we found enough water for our 

 purpose, and a few hours' hard work sufficed to fill our tanks. On 

 the following day we weighed anchor and set our course N.N.E. for 

 Macassar. Our visit to Sumbawa had been too short to get any- 

 thing more than a passing glunpse of the country, and we had been 

 disappointed in our plan of ascending Tambora, but we had added 

 considerably to the number of our photographs, and by diligent 

 collecting had succeeded in obtaining forty species of birds, two of 

 which, as I have already mentioned, were new to science. 



