Logging Rasak and Lagan 



Bv T. R. Hklms 



T IvW'lXG Singapore, one of the coastwise steamers ot 

 I the Koninglijke Paketvaart, which calls at Singa- 



^ ^ pore every two weeks, proceeds up the Straits of 

 Malacca, and stops at Penang, where she takes on the 

 mail brought by European steamers, for the west coast 

 of Sumatra. The steamers of the Paketvaart, being of 

 light draught, enter the harbor of Penang by the South 

 Chamiel, just as the German cruiser Emden did, when 

 she destroyed a Russian and a French warship early in 

 the war. .\11 steamers of heavy draught enter the harbor 

 by the North Channel and leave the same way. Leaving 

 Penang, the steamer goes west to Sabang, an important 

 coaling station on the Island, Palo Way, which is situated 

 off the extreme northern end of the Island of Sumatra. 

 The harbor of Sabang is very much up to date ; it has a 

 good wharf and very modern coal sheds, and traveling 

 electric cranes for unloading coal from vessels into the 

 sheds, or vice versa. 



From Sabang the steamer goes to Oleh Leh, which is 

 the port of Kota Radja, the capital of Acheen, which lies 

 about four miles inland, .\fter leaving Oleh Leh and 

 calling at Meulaboh and Tampat Toeon, the steamer 



strikes out west for the Island of Si Maloe, before reach- 

 ing which the captain of the steamer is apt to remark 

 that it rains all the time on Si Maloe, and that this great 

 rainfall is caused by the dense and heavy growth of tim- 

 ber with which the island is covered. 



It appears that the people on the other side of the earth 

 also connect forests and rainfall, on which subject so 

 much has been written in this country. 



After leaving Oleh Leh and viewing the shores of Su- 

 matra and outlying small islands, there are to be seen 

 numerous rocky, barren little islands. In the dry season 

 the extreme northwest coast of Sumatra looks in most 

 places barren and uninviting, but when after a seven 

 days' trip from Singapore, the steamer arrives at the 

 Island of Si Maloe, everything is green, no bare, barren 

 land is to be seen, every little coral bank or island, no mat- 

 ter how small, is covered with vegetation. It is one of 

 the greenest spots on the face of the earth. It is not 

 subject to wet and dry seasons in the sense that some 

 other tropical or semi-tropical parts of the earth's surface 

 are, but has a heavy rainfall most of the time. On the 

 main Island of Si Maloe are three good land-locked bays, 



RASAK LOGS 



These were cut on the island of Si Maloe, called by the Dutch Kiland St tialoer, which is off the northern coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. 

 A peculiarity of the Rasak trees is that nearly all the mature ones a.e rotted in the center, hut the wood cut from the sound portion is 

 valuable and in demand. Si Maloe is said to he the greenest spot on earth. 



1050 



