92 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. ' [Ch. VI. 



se-kau Bay. Being in communication with the owners of 

 coal depots for the purchase of coal for the ship, we were 

 brought into contact with a civil Chinaman, who was acting 

 as compradore for Messrs. Lessler and Hagen of Tam-suy. 

 This man spoke and wrote excellent English, having been 

 educated at the English school in Penang, and when sub- 

 sequently he superintended the delivery of the coals on 

 board ship, the sailors were not a little astonished, and 

 stood around open-mouthed, to see a smart young Chinaman 

 with pig-taU, long silk coat, thick-soled shoes, and about 

 whose nationality there could be no mistake, sitting at a 

 table on deck and writing an elegant, free, commercial hand, 

 while he communicated with the officers in fluent and gram- 

 matical English. This man politely lent us his gig and two 

 rowers to conduct us to the mines. The two men were very 

 good-humoured, particularly the younger one, who laughed 

 immensely at everything we said and did. Having rowed us 

 nearly up to the town, the harbour getting very shallow as 

 we proceeded, so that at length only a narrow channel be- 

 tween two mud-flats approaches the town, we entered a 

 small, muddy creek, with so little water that our boatmen 

 had several times to jump out and puU the boat afcng. The 

 hills were beautifully wooded, and the glen narrowed as we 

 proceeded. At length, quitting the boat, we ascended a 

 slight elevation, passing a range of red sandstone hiUs, 

 which formed a series continuous with those seen at the 

 back of the harbour, and which dip on an average 16° or 17° 

 to the south-east. The weather-worn outcrops of these 

 strata produced the undulating country in which I now 

 found myself, and in the depressions of which the coal 

 appears to have been deposited. We now entered a cul-de- 

 sac in the hills, and, descending from the path into a ditch, I 



