5416 Natural-History Collectors, 



" The islands of Baly and Lombock are inhabited by Malayan races, 

 closely allied to the Javanese. Baly has several rajahs, who are under 

 the protection of the Dutch ; Lombock has one rajah, who governs the 

 whole, and is quite independent. These two islands are wonderfully 

 cultivated, — in fact, they are probably among the best cultivated in the 

 world : I was perfectly astonished when, on riding thirty miles into the 

 interior, I beheld the country cultivated like a garden, the whole being 

 cut into terraces, and every patch surrounded by channels, so that any 

 part can be flooded at pleasure ; sometimes a hollow has the appear- 

 ance of a vast amphitheatre, or a hill-side of a gigantic staircase, and 

 hundreds of square miles of an undulated country have been thus 

 rendered capable of irrigation, to effect which almost every stream has 

 been diverted from its channel and its waters distributed over the 

 country. The soil is a fine volcanic mould of the richest description, 

 and the result of such a mode of cultivation is an astonishing fertility ; 

 the ground is scarcely ever unoccupied ; crops of tobacco, Indian corn, 

 sugar cane, beans and cucumbers, alternate with the rice, and give at 

 every season a green and smiling appearance to the island: it is only 

 on the summits of the hills and on the tops of the undulations, where 

 water cannot be brought, that the ground is left uncultivated, but in 

 these places a short turf gives food to the catlle and horses, which are 

 very abundant, and clumps of bamboos with forest and fruit trees have 

 all the appearance of an extensive park, and a pleasing contrast to the 

 more regularly cultivated districts. I have been informed by parties 

 capable of forming a judgment that in the best cultivated parts of Java 

 so much labour has not been expended on the soil, and even the in- 

 dustrious Chinese can show nothing to surpass it: more than half the 

 Island of Lombock consists of rugged volcanic mountains, which are 

 quite incapable of cultivation, yet it exports more than 20,000 tons of 

 rice annually, besides great quantities of tobacco, coffee, cotton and 

 hides. Our manufacturers and capitalists are on the look-out for a 

 new cotton-producing district : here is one to their hands. The 

 islands of Baly, Lombock and Sumbawa can produce from ten to 

 twenty thousand tons of cotton annually ; it costs here uncleaned about 

 lucent a-pound; the qualities are various, — some, I believe, very 

 good, so it can easily be calculated whether, after cleaning, it would 

 pay. 



" A. R. Wallace." 



