TOPOGEAPHY OF JAVA. 185 



west of the roadstead, which already possessed a naval arsenal ; but after much 

 discussion, the engineers at last decided in favour of the Tanjong Priok Point, which 

 is distant only 6 miles to the north-east of the old town. Here the land, somewhat 

 more elevated than the neighbouring coast, projects seawards towards a line of 

 upheaved beds, which are continued in the direction of the east. Two immense 

 stone jetties, 2,140 and 1,960 yards long respectively, now project from this point, 

 curving round at their northern extremity so as to leave for shipping an entrance 

 of about 500 feet. The space thus enclosed comprises nearly 500 acres, and aiïords 

 good anchorage for the largest vessels. Repairing basins, graving and dry docks, 

 and building yards complete the harbour works, which are connected with the rest 

 of the city by a road, a railway, and a canal crossing the intervening marshy 

 plain. 



The two large towns of Tangerang and Bekasi to the east, both inhabited by 

 Chinese, may be regarded as direct dependencies of Batavia. Bekasi is even 

 connected by rail with the capital, of which it forms a suburban retreat ; but not 

 a single descendant is now to be found of the Dutch Boers, who settled in the 

 district about the middle of the eighteenth century. In Tangerang and neigh- 

 bourhood some 40,000 or 50,000 peasants are occupied during the " dead season " 

 in plaiting hats, mats and boxes of bamboo fibre, which are bought up by Chinese 

 traders for the market of Paris. In 1887, the district of Tjilongok alone exported 

 about 1,200,000 hats, valued at nearly £80,000. 



Farther south the advanced spurs of the Gedé volcano are resorted to by most 

 of the Europeans, who can here breathe a pure and invigorating atmosphere. In 

 1774, Buifenzorg, that is " Sans Souci," was chosen as the site of an official health- 

 resort, and this place has by successive enlargements become a vast residence, now 

 usually occupied by the Governor- Generals of the Dutch East Indies. Lying 880 

 feet above the sea, on a wooded slope between the Liwong and Dani river valleys, 

 Buitenzorg commands a superb prospect of the surrounding forest-clad gloomy 

 gorges and undulating heights rising in one direction towards Mount Salak, in 

 another towards Gedé. Nowhere else in Java is the indigenous vegetation more 

 exuberant or more varied than here, and no botanic garden in the world is richer or 

 better organised than that of Buitenzorg, whose magnificent avenues wind round 

 about the government palace. Here are cultivated no less than 9,300 different 

 species of plants. 



But Buitenzorg is not sufficiently elevated to be regarded as a sanitarium. 

 Hence invalids and convalescents usually prefer the station of Sindang-Lnya, which 

 stands at an altitude of 3,560 feet on the northern slope of Gedé, near the vast 

 nursery grounds of Tjibodas. This is said to be the most salubrious spot in the 

 whole of west Java, and hundreds of soldiers stricken down during the Atjeh 

 campaigns have here recovered their health. 



South of Buitenzorg the railway, after crossing the main insular water-parting, 

 and leaving to the south thinly peopled districts sloping down to Wijnkoops Bay, 

 and the port of Plahitan-Ratv, passes eastwards by the important stations of 

 Sukabumi Tjaiijitr, into the vast basin of the Tarum. Here is the port of Tjikao, 



