APPENDIX. 311 



Penang, to most minds, is suggestive of nutmegs and other 

 ■spices, but it also carries me back in memory to my sehool-boy 

 days and the story of the youngster, who, on examination day, 

 before the grave and spectacled trustees of a district school, spelled 

 and defined the word rattan as follows: " R-a-t-t-a-n, rattan ; a 

 slender, fibrous wood which comes from Penang, Samarang, and 

 Padang, and — is used by the school-master in this school too-dcmg 

 often." I have always had a fellow-feeling for that boy, and re- 

 spect him even now ; besides, it taught me a lesson in geography, 

 for, forget as I would the names of other places, Penang, Sama- 

 rang, and Padang were always firmly fixed in my memory. 



A sea- voyage is not considered the pleasantest and most enter- 

 taining thing in the world, especially if one is subject to sea-sick- 

 ness ; but I enjoy voyaging in these tropical seas, where all is so 

 new and interesting to me. This morning I have been watching 

 the shoals of tiny flying-fish as they rise from the water to escape 

 the dolphins and other voracious monsters, and go skipping from 

 wave to wave, sometimes for quite long distances ; and last night 

 we had a beautiful exhibition of phosphorescent light in the water, 

 as it glided along the ship's side or curled upward from the screw 

 astern. Nature is always providing beauties for those who have 

 eyes to see and hearts to appreciate, and I feel myself fortunate 

 in being able to find pleasure in her charms whether ©n land or 

 sea. 



I have enjoyed some most charming bits of tropical scenery, 

 among them Buitenzorg, Java, which, as an entirety, is a most 

 beautiful place ; but the prospect from the Hotel Belle-vue is 

 fairly entitled, I think, to the name of " Tlie most hecmtiful view 

 in the world." The pretty river Tjedani runs just at the foot of 

 the bluff upon which the hotel is built, and, with an abrupt turn, 

 loses itself amid a mass of tropical foliage. 



" Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of paradise." 



The plain below is also covered with graceful cocoa-nut palms, 

 and other tropical trees, and reaches away for several miles, gradu- 

 ally sloping upward until a belt of coffee and spice plantations is 

 reached, and from these, for a background, there suddenly rises 

 the grand volcanic peak of Mount Salak. 



