3° 



^th February, ii 



J. H. Greenhill, Esq., Mus.Bac, in the Chair. 



Thos. Workman, Esq., J.P., read a Paper on 

 A VISIT TO SINGAPORE. 



Mr. Workman having prefaced his remarks with a comparison 

 between an East India voyage in the time of James I. and the 

 present time, said :— 



It was early morning, and the sea golden, its mirror spread 

 beneath the golden skies, when the vessel by which I 

 sailed steamed round the northern end of Polo Penang 

 towards its capital, Georgetown. We could not approach 

 close to the shore, owing to the numerous fish-driving sta- 

 tions, which extend more than two miles from the land, the 

 water being very shoal along the northern end of the island. 

 These fishing stations are Very common in the East wherever 

 the water is shoal enough to permit them, and are made of two 

 long converging fences of bamboos, stuck into the ground at 

 the bottom of the sea, and then these uprights are intertwined 

 with split bamboos, so that no fish can get through them. At the 

 head of this huge trap, which is three or four hundred feet long, 

 is placed the net on longer stakes. The fish are driven generally 

 at night to the mouth of the trap, as they cannot get through 

 the side walls up into the net. For liberty to erect one of these 

 traps the fisherman has to purchase a license from Government, 

 and as they are often placed far out at sea the owner has to 

 keep a red light burning at night on its end. Penang is a 

 mountainous island, the hills rising to the height of 2,700 feet, 

 but Georgetown is placed on the eastern end of flat, low-lying 



