REPORT 



ON THE 



MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY AND AGRICULTURE 



OF 



THE ISLAND OF GEEAT LEW CHEW. 



BY DR. D. S. GREEN, FLEET SURGEON. 



Sir: Of the examination of Lew Chew, made by me, in obedience to your orders, I have the 

 honor to submit the following report : 



In company with a small party of officers, and two men as cooks, &c, I left Napha, January 

 31, 1854, on a tour of observation over the island of Great Lew Chew. The chief object of the 

 expedition was to explore for coal, indications of which had been reported to exist on the shores 

 of Shah bay, some sixty miles distant. That subject is matter for the geological reporter. 

 This report will be a brief and general one upon the health of the island, as indicated by its 

 climate and physical condition, and upon its agriculture — incidental remarks being occasionally 

 introduced. Let it be remembered, however, that the whole distance, of not less than 125 

 miles, was accomplished in five days, and that, consequently, the observations must have been 

 more or less superficial ; but to compensate this deficiency, facts noticed last summer, during 

 several weeks, will be used; and, doubtless, materials are at hand for an interesting exposition, 

 could they be properly used. 



The island lies between 26° and 27° north latitude, and is about sixty or seventy miles long, 

 by about ten or fifteen in average width. It consists of elevated and high lands, having a 

 central ridge rising in places to mountains of over one thousand feet in altitude, with spurs 

 diverging on either side, forming promontories on the coast, with bays and indentations be- 

 tween. The streams issuing thence are small and short, and beautifully clear and pellucid; 

 being thus brief in their course, and speedily reaching the ocean, or appropriated to irrigation, 

 there are no extensive alluvial deposites ; and such as there are, are used, every foot of them, in 

 the culture of rice, so that no swamps or marshes, however small, exist in Lew Chew. The 

 government would gladly reward the discoverer of any such, as it would add that much to the 

 productive capacity of the country, and would be quickly converted into smiling fields of waving 

 grain. This entire absence of marshes, together with the pure air constantly wafted over the 

 land in the breezes of the surrounding sea, must exempt the island of all miasmal diseases, 

 such as intermittent fevers and neuralgias, remittent and yellow fevers, &c. ; possibly mild in- 



