1841.] Report on the Island of Chedooba. 441 



the two circles of Kam-mad, and Tang-wa, which enclose this side of the 

 Island, than in any of the others with one exception ; this want of 

 population arises from other causes than any connected with want of 

 productiveness in the soil. 



Chedooba was originally peopled from the eastward, and has never been 

 so thickly inhabited, as to oblige the cultivation of the western lands, 

 which have therefore been hitherto visited, more than inhabited, the 

 want of gratification for his social habits always driving the western 

 settler, after a certain period of sojourn back again to his more thickly 

 populated native village to the eastward. The present Rua-gong of the 

 village of Kammaa was formerly Soogree over but seven houses, in a 

 district where his own village now numbers 300. 



The extent of plain between the hills and the sea, half way down the 

 west side of the Island is small, but 1 here saw one of the largest and 

 richest gardens of plaintains in the whole Island, while as the general 

 produce of the above soil along the limits mentioned. I observed, rice 

 (the staple) tobacco, sugar cane, some cotton, hemp, and indigo (in 

 cleared spots in the jungle) ; of fruits and vegetables, the cocoanut, 

 plantain, orange, lime, tamarind, yam, bringals, and other garden pro- 

 duce of these climates. 



The specimens in 3 and 4, represent the soil found generally in the 

 hilly, and jungly parts of the Island. The largest and most luxuriant 

 trees in the Island are found in the loose friable soil which is found on 

 all the hill tops, in that of No. 4 were flourishing perhaps the very 

 largest on the Island. An oil tree felled measured for a length of 60 

 feet, 4 feet 6 inches, and 3 feet 6 inches in diameter at its respective ends, 

 and a like tree left as a beacon, on the summit of the hill, measured 21 

 feet 4 inches in girt, as high as the arm could reach. 



In mentioning however the size of these trees, it is not to be inferred 

 that valuable timber is to be looked for as a produce of Chedooba. The 

 largest trees are almost exclusively confined to the hill tops, where 

 they are difficult of access, and of no very valuable quantity, enough 

 however, and of sufficient size, and good quality for all domestic pur- 

 poses, is every where to be found, nor do 1 doubt that, woods, affording 

 valuable produce of different kinds, would on examination be found 

 among the jungles. The wood-oil tree as has been observed, was found 

 in luxuriance on the west hill, where was also the gamboge, and many 

 trees large and small yielding caoutchouc, some in great profusion. I 

 would here mention while on the subject of the jungles, that no part, in 

 the many miles of it, travelled through, appeared to offer any serious ob- 



