286 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. [Oh. XVII. 



demned ; but, to be just, those engaged either directly or 

 indirectly in the production of ardent spirits should meet 

 with an equal amount of reprobation. But there can be 

 no manner of doubt that drunkenness is far more produc- 

 tive of misery and crime in this country than is opium- 

 smoking ill China, while we are apt to forget the consi- 

 deration that we are a professedly Christian people, while 

 the opium-smoking Chinese are heathens, with a very 

 imperfect natural appreciation of morality, as understood in 

 the West.* 



Before leaving Tanjong Putri, I visited the extensive 

 steam saw-mills, in which a variety of circular and perpen- 

 dicular saws were at work upon wood of all sizes, from 

 small planks to enormous trunks of trees. These mills 

 are worked by a company, principally Europeans, but in 

 which the Tumonggong possesses an interest. The ■\^ork- 

 men are all Chinese, who live in a separate village, which 

 is enclosed, and the gate to which is kept locked during 

 working hours. There are similar saw-mUls, but on a much 

 smaller scale, at Singapore. 



In passing several times up and down the Singapore 

 Straits, the lighthouse on Pedro Branco Island, commonly 

 known as the " Horsburgh Light," is a conspicuous and 

 interesting object. I one day paid it a visit, and rambled 

 over it from top to bottom. It is built on a rock to the 

 east of Singapore, at 28 miles distance, with soundings of 

 17 to 23 fathoms aU the way. It was a lovely morning, 



* Confirmed opium smokers, it is well known, suffer severely when deprived 

 of the drug, and the vice sometimes assumes a, form which is analogous to 

 dipsomania. The friends of such persons have occasionally brought them to 

 the European medical men in Canton to be cured, and a cure is not difficult to be 

 effected by proper treatment and supervision ; but it ofcourse depends upon the 

 firmness and principle of the patient to refrain from relapsing into the bad habit. 



