VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 121 



ing fruits. As their parts of fructification were big, I had 

 no difficulty in describing them. 



3. — During the last days we have had some north wind and the 

 weather was better. I still collected many plants, specially 

 fruits, which I had not yet got. In the middle of the day I dried 

 my plants in the sun and obtained some beautiful specimens. 



4. — I obtained many kinds of corals and a new species of 

 Holothuria and a special kind of mollusc. I also went to Pungul 

 to-day, where I made as many inquiries as I could concerning 

 the Gambler and made a description. It seems to be a peculiar 

 fact that the seed cannot be kept for very long. The place 

 where the boiling was to be carried on was just being built. 

 There were three large holes, surrounded by a wall, they were 

 three feet in diameter and two feet deep. These holes were 

 made to contain the boilers and they were dug into the mountain 

 quite straight ; there were some other holes to contain the fire- 

 wood. The edge of the boilers was surrounded by a certain 

 bark, forming a circlet about f of a foot high. There were also 

 some gutters manufactured of wood which was l-J- inch thick ; the 

 gutter itself was three feet wide and four feet long. These 

 gutters lay in perfect order on a slanting stand and were destined 

 to bring the lie into the boiler. 



The merchant and architect living here will give a perfect 

 description of this boiling establishment to the Ravi society, but 

 1 content myself with the above-mentioned facts, on account of 

 my short stay here, and because of the false information which 

 people are so apt to give about such matters from suspicion 

 or jealousy. The ways of boiling are different, but the 

 Chinese is said to be the best. The whole place is fourteen paces 

 long and eight paces wide ; the roof is covered with the bark of 

 the Melaleuca tree, and I was astonished to see that the house 

 was situated in such dense jungle, and that people were allowed 

 to stay here, on account of the tigers. Only at one end of the 

 house they had a small partition which could be closed ; it was 

 scarcely the height of a man and this was their sleeping place. 

 It was peculiar that from _ underneath the fire hole..of: o»e- of the 

 boilers there came out a "beautiful clear spring. This may 

 however only have been originated by the rainy season, which 

 had begun uncommonly early this year, and still continued. 



1 went a little deeper into the dense jungle, which was now 



