chap. vii. J TRAVELLING BY POST. 157 



making only a short journey to the district at the foot of 

 Mount Arjuna, where I was told there were extensive 

 forests, and where I hoped to be able to make some 

 good collections. The country for many miles behind 

 Sourabaya is perfectly flat and everywhere cultivated ; 

 being a delta or alluvial plain watered by many branching 

 streams. Immediately around the town the evident signs 

 of wealth and of an industrious population were very 

 pleasing; but as we went on, the constant succession of 

 open fields skirted by rows of bamboos, with here and 

 there the white buildings and tall chimney of a sugar-mill, 

 became monotonous. The roads run in straight lines for 

 several miles at a stretch, and are bordered by rows of 

 dusty tamarind-trees. At each mile there are little guard- 

 houses, where a policeman is stationed ; and there is a 

 wooden gong, which by means of concerted signals may be 

 made to convey information over the country with great 

 rapidity. About every six or seven miles is the post-house, 

 where the horses are changed as quickly as were those 

 of the mail in the old coaching days in England. 



I stopped at Modjokerto, a small town about forty miles 

 south of Sourabaya, and the nearest point on the high road 

 to the district I wished to visit. T had a letter of intro- 

 duction to Mr. Ball, an Englishman long resident in Java 

 and married to a Dutch lady, and he kindly invited me to 

 stay with him till 1 could fix on a place to suit me. A 



