AND LAKES. 9 



be carried on by the Malay traders of Sarawak. A 

 large lake is also said to exist amongst the ranges 

 of mountains near Kina Balou; and on the Dutch 

 charts a chain of lakes is laid down between this and 

 the Danau Malayu already noticed, and consequently 

 stretching across the island ; but, as no one has visited 

 any of them, they must be laid down from native 

 information, which they alone have been able to ob- 

 tain, or, what is more probable, they have been placed 

 there without any information at ah 1 respecting their 

 existence. 



In surface the island is usually low and undulating 

 towards the sea shore, and for a long way into the 

 interior in the north-west, and south, and south- 

 east parts of the island. The belt of undulating land 

 on the west coast is not so broad, as the general 

 and continuous ranges of mountains of the north 

 are here much broken, and at first sight appear to be 

 scattered about in a solitary manner, and without 

 any order ; they approach nearer to the sea than in the 

 centre of the island, so that the west coast, particularly 

 approaching the territories of Sarawak and Sambas, 

 has a mountainous appearance at a little distance in- 

 land, quite foreign to the southern and western districts. 

 The sea shores are all of fine sand, and lined with a 

 hedge of the beautiful arroo tree, (Casuarina,) which, 

 from their resemblance, are usually called firs by the 

 Europeans. The mouths of the rivers are generally 

 muddy and overflowed for some few miles by the 

 tides j here the nipah palm and the mangrove delight to 



