CRUISE IN THE SOUTHERN CHINA SEA. 73 



are mainly confined to Terempa and only isolated settlers occur 

 elsewhere. 



One afternoon we rowed to a little island in the bay called 

 Langor. It was only about 100 feet high and consisted of sand 

 and rocks covered with scrub and a few coco palms. Everywhere 

 the ground was strewn with pigeon's feathers and by waiting 

 we found that large flocks of the orange-breasted pigeon 

 (Osmotreron bicincta) came off at sunset from surrounding islands 

 and used this spot as a roosting place in company with smaller 

 numbers of glossy starlings and nutmeg pigeons. The whirring 

 noise made by the wings of the flocks as they flew round and 

 round the island, disturbed by our shots, was very great and 

 continued until we departed with bags stuffed with birds that 

 appeared later in a most delicious stew. 



Kelong, Manguan and Tobing. 



We next sailed round the north end of Mata and anchored 

 between it and Pulo Kelong, a narrow island about 5 miles long 

 in a N. and S. direction and less than a mile wide : the ground 

 sloped upward to a ridge 600-700 feet high and every where the 

 soil and jungle were very poor. Most of the channel dividing 

 Kelong from Mata is filled with sand banks and coral, dry at low 

 tide. Fishing-stakes had been set up here and there by the 

 Malays but to us the place proved a good ground for the com- 

 mon shore birds of this region and we also collected a number 

 of beautiful starfish while our crew hunted for trepang and 

 chopped tridacnas out of the coral . Other animal life was scarce 

 and we soon moved southward to Pulo Manguan, a small island 

 shaped like a dumb-bell, flat and swampy in the centre; but do- 

 ing no better there, anchored the schooner off Tobing, an islet 

 near the eastern entrance of the Siantan channel, and from thence 

 again visited the waterfall, and next day, previous to sailing for 

 the south of Siantan, rowed to Terempa and back for our mails. 



Telaga. 



The second stay at Terempa concluding on the 13th of 

 September we made for Jimaja, the chief of the westerly Anam- 

 bas,ifirst however after a few hours sail stopping about mid- way , 

 at a group of small islands of which Telaga is chief. This is a 



F. A, SoC, No. 41, 1903. 



