ch. xiv.] Returning from Kiau. 289 



and the tall clustering wands of bamboo, form the most 

 distinctive features of the landscape. We at length bade 

 our friends good-bye, and the whole village came to the 

 knoll above the stream to see us start, and the girls were 

 ('specially interested and begged of us to come again and 

 bring them some needles, looking-glasses, and cloth. 



Coming down the hillside cornfields from Kiau I saw 

 here and there patches of cotton (Gossypium barbadense) , 

 and a delicate pink-flowered variety of tobacco was in 

 bloom, and being supported by stakes, were perhaps left 

 for seed. On the steep side of the opposite hill are 

 numerous little farms, and on each you see a tiny flat- 

 topped bamboo-hut which is used for shelter and rest 

 during field labour. The soil is a reddish friable loam, 

 thickly sprinkled with large sandstone boulders and 

 stones ; while in the lower plains and valleys is a deep 

 black deposit which under irrigation yields splendid crops 

 of rice. Under European protection and management, 

 aided by systematic Chinese coolie labour, the virgin 

 tracts on these bill ranges might be worked with advan- 

 tage in the production of coffee and cinchona. Once 

 fairly started, and with improved roads, this district would 

 possess many attractions, not the least being a com- 

 paratively cool and salubrious climate. At elevations of 

 8,000 to 5,000 feet a cool bracing air is readily obtainable, 

 indeed, as suggested by Mr. Low, the Marie Parie spur 

 would form a capital site for a sanatorium of the utmost 

 value to Europeans. At higher elevations a really cool 

 climate, almost European, in fact, is obtainable. To 

 bring this fertile district into cultivation and to form any- 

 thing like good roads, however, would be a task Hercu- 

 lean, and one only to be accomplished by an immense 

 expenditure of labour and capital. The system employed 

 by the natives in clearing their new farms is to fill the 



v 



