ISLAND OF ROTTEE. 201 



termining the position of Pulo Douw, and the 

 other islands in its neighbourhood. 



An extensive coral flat fronts this part of Rottee, 

 connecting it with the small islands lying off it. 



We got from the natives some shells of a kind 

 of small green muscle of a very peculiar shape. The 

 old man from whom I got them was making a meal 

 from some rare shell-fish. He did not understand 

 the value of money ; and, strange to say, not a word 

 of the Malay language. The same was the case 

 with all his companions. At the part of Samow I 

 visited the people all understood it, which is very- 

 remarkable, as only a narrow strait separates the 

 islands. In this state of ignorance they may perhaps 

 be purposely kept. 



I here recognized several Australian shrubs and 

 palms. The rock of which this port of Rottee is 

 formed appeared of a madreporic nature, scattered 

 about in huge blocks. At a little distance from the 

 water it formed low broken cliffs from twenty to 

 thirty feet in length ; these were every where under- 

 mined by the sea, from which the land here was evi- 

 dently emerging. I noticed several deserted huts 

 and broken walls or fences, which bore the appear- 

 ance of having had much labour bestowed on them at 

 some time or other. They added much to the lonely 

 appearance of the place, for there is nothing that 

 imparts so great an air of desolation to a scene as 

 the signs that it has once been inhabited by man. 

 Tracts which have never before been trodden by 



