2 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



August 30. We start at daylight to-morrow morning ; and 

 have to go about eighty miles up the west coast to reach the 

 mouth of the Moar river, which flows into the sea close to 

 Malacca. We then turn up the river to get to our shooting 

 ground, so shall not be able to begin work till Sept. 2 or 3, 

 instead of the 1st, as I should have liked. We have hired a 

 big boat of about 11 tons, called a tongkong, for our expedition. 

 This requires five men, and will either sail or can be rowed. 

 Her cost is a dollar a day. We shall have lots of room in her, 

 which will be a great comfort, as we shall have to live almost 

 entirely on board. I am taking my Chinese boy to cook for us, 

 and C. has engaged a Malay servant who can act as interpreter, 

 for Mr. Tuanko speaks nothing but his native gibberish. We 

 have had a good deal to do in the way of getting steel tips made 

 for bullets, and a thousand and one little necessaries. Our 

 battery consists of C.'s double smoothbore gun, of 12-bore, and 

 his double breech-loading rifle, also 12-bore ; the last is a 

 beautiful weapon, carrying steel-tipped bullets, 2 oz. in weight. 

 Thanks to the kindness of friends, I am pretty well off for 

 weapons. I have brought my 14-bore (smooth) with rne, and a 

 civilian at Hong Kong lent me a very fine double 8-bore 

 (smooth), by Holland ; it will carry a ball of about 2 oz., which, 

 hardened with a mixture of quicksilver, and propelled by four 

 or five drachms of powder, would make a tolerable hole in any- 

 thing. Lastly, though I ought almost to have mentioned it 

 first, I have been lucky enough to get a double 10-bore muzzle- 

 loading rifle, lent me by a man here, who has shot elephants 

 with it himself. It is just the sort of rifle wanted for this work, 

 and a bullet of 2J oz. weight, with a steel tip, should stop any 

 elephant. Singapore is a most delightful place. Instead of 

 the eternal brown barren hills as at Hong Kong, everything 

 looks fresh and green. There are capital roads all over the 

 island, which is nearly flat, and about fifteen miles long, and as 

 you drive along you may almost fancy yourself amongst the 

 green lanes at home. The heat, too, is not nearly so oppressive 

 as in Hong Kong ; the sun has nothing like the same power, 





