Acheen. ^49 



Madrassee boats with tlieiv queer and apparently clumsy-looking 

 spade-shaped oars ; neat dapper little boats from the Chinese 

 schooners and small native boats which are used either only in 

 the river^ or within sight of land. 



" Then there are the large native fishing boats which go a long 

 way out of sight of land. These are generally capital sailing 

 boats, and often carry twenty or more men on board, who appear 

 to be always heavily armed. The boat itself is usually mounted 

 at the bows with an iron gun, about 5 or 6 feet long, and 

 with a bore measuring 2-5 or 3 inches in diameter. These 

 armed fishing boats I was told not unfrequently run down to 

 Penang and back, the journey with a favorable wind taking 

 about eight days. 



" I do not know what the internal administration of the 

 country is, or how justice (?) is dispensed, but I should say that it 

 could not be very perfect, as the Natives generally settle any 

 disputes they have by fighting wherever they may happen 

 to be, often in the middle of the street, till one or other is killed ; 

 no notice is apparently taken of a man^s losing his life in what 

 may be considered a fair fight. 



" I saw no wild mammals except a few small squirrels, but was 

 told that the forests in the interior abounded with animals of differ- 

 ent kinds, among which the rhinoceros was said to be not uncom- 

 mon. Butterflies and beetles appeared rather scarce, but lizards, 

 large and small, were to be seen commonly, and the river, creeks, 

 and even small isolated patches of water, evidently only rain- 

 water pools, abounded with a huge hydro-saurus, about five feet 

 in length. 



" The following is a list of the birds seen, but not actually 

 obtained : 



43.— Cuncuma lencogaster, Qm. 



I saw two of these fish-eagles sailing about rather high up 

 just off Acheen Head, about half way between the steamer and 

 the shore. 



127 ^67 .— Pelargopsis Fraseri, Sharpe. 



I saw a Felargopsis the first day at Acheen ; it was sitting 

 on a bamboo that overhung the river. I was within twenty 

 yards of it for some time, and think that it belonged to the above 

 species ; it certainly was not hurmanica, as it was much too blue 

 for that species, and as we obtained Fraseri* at Galatea Bay and 



* I doubt if it is Fraseri. It is I think nearer leucocephala, and probably a dis- 

 tinct species intermedius, nobis. Vide Avi-fauna of the Islands of the Bay of 

 A. 0. H. 



