VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 185 



we directed the course of our ship. In the evening before sun- 

 set we saw Pullu Timon, and that it consisted of high mountains ; 

 we sailed quite close to it. 



The water was filled with red swimming objects, which in 

 some places covered it entirely. The sailors call it fish-spawn 

 in the English language. Some birds from the land passed our 

 ship and a tern was caught. The atmosphere continued to be 

 cool, but it was dry. 



11. — Early this morning we had approached Pullu Aor as 

 near as half a mile. The high mountains have no trees and our 

 captain, who had cast anchors here last year, told us that it was 

 inhabited by many very poor people. 



Some amber* and birds' nests are collected here, and many 

 coconuts grow on the island. The inhabitants make a very good 

 kind of mat. They venture far' out on the sea, even in stormy 

 weather, in their small but specially well-built canoes. I was not 

 so lucky as to be able to go on land. 



I gathered much of the so-called fish-.-pawn, as the sea was 

 calmer and we had fine weather. As soon as it was taken from 

 the sea it lost its red or ochreous colour and turned g'rey. It 

 consists of small oblong roundish pieces, pointed at both ends ; 

 they are hardly more than two lines long and half a line large. 

 Under a half-inch magnifying- glass, one sees that they are 

 composed of innumerable fine fibres, many of them being' g'reen. 

 If one touches them with a knife or a finger, they are like the 

 finest mud and slimy. 1 kept some of them in spirits of wine. 

 They became a little smaller and green, which colour they also 

 communicated to the spirit. Those pieces which had struck to 

 the glass, had turned black. It seems to me that they are no- 

 thing' else than those foam-like particles, which we saw a few 

 days ago floating on the sea, and which have been driven to- 

 gether to their present shape, by the fury of the storm. Probably 

 they sink down to the ground, when they have been thoroughly 

 saturated with the salt of the sea. Another idea is that they 

 may be the swimming seed of the green strong Conferva, which 

 clings to the rocks and the ship, and can resist the strongest 

 waves. ■ It is quite certain than they are organic particles, as 

 far as 1 could discover. 



We had north-easterly winds and the sky was covered with 

 * Da mar. 



