98 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



tail being" pitch-black, the sides had brown and yellow spots. I 

 tried to catch some of them, but without success. 



With the help of the current and favourable wind, we pass- 

 ed the afore-mentioned harbour in the afternoon at a distance of 

 half a mile ; we had to pass several steep cliffs, which stood out 

 of the water. Little g-rew upon them and they looked as if rivet- 

 ted tog-ether, because there was some red ochre ; only one of 

 these cliffs was named in the sea-charts, none of the others were 

 marked at all. 



Shortly before sunset I caught a snake two and a half 

 feet long in my net, but the net was too small and our ship 

 moved too fast, so that I could not keep it. Its colour had been 

 purplish red which was divided into lozenges by some black lines. 

 The stomach was white. 



A great quantity of the seed of the Bontia and different 

 kinds of costia, which had all germinated drifted by. The 

 anchor was cast at three o'clock on account of the muddy 

 ground. 



21. — Before day-break the anchor was hoisted again, because 

 the current was favourable, but at the entrance of the strait of 

 Callay {Klang) it had to be cast again because the wind as well 

 as the stream were against us. At one o'clock in the afternoon 

 the anchor was hoisted again, and the rapid stream which passes 

 the straits had soon taken us up and carried us through the 

 wind would have helped us on very little. The whole channel 

 is not more than 500 steps wide in most places, in some it is even 

 narrower. The islands are all very low and consist of a grey 

 mud, but they are overgrown with creepers and those trees of 

 all equal height, most of them, as far as I could see, were 

 Rhizophora. Here and there were some trees, which seemed 

 unknown to me. There was specially one kind of palm, which 

 had no stem at all, but its leaves resembled those of the coco- 

 trees, only the separate leaflets were broader and flatter.* 

 There are many small channels traversing these islands, which 

 were not marked on the charts, but they enhance the beauty 

 for those passing by. In the middle of this sound there was a 

 wider channel branching off, forming the island PuUu Loometh.| 

 The unfavourable wind and stream forced us to cast our anchor 

 towards evening ; we were still in the mouth of this channel. 

 * Nipa fruticans, L. f Pulau Lumut 



