ACCOUNT OF A NATURALIST'S VISIT TO THE 

 TERRITORY OF SELANGOR. 



By Wm. T. Hornaday. 



(Read at a Meeting of the Society, held on the 7 th of April, 1879.^ 



Wishing to obtain a glimpse of the Zoology of the Malay 

 Peninsula, and also to collect as many specimens of Mammals 

 as possible, I determined to make a flying visit to the terri- 

 tory of Selangor. Since that country has been but recently 

 opened up to Europeans and is thinly inhabited as yet, I ex- 

 pected to find it a good field for collecting, and so it proved. 

 Leaving Singapore on June 2nd, 1878, twenty-six hours' 

 steaming brought us to the mouth of the river Klang, about 

 200 miles from our starting point. This is the largest river in 

 the territory, and is about 150 yards wide near the mouth. 



For about 12 miles up the river the banks are low and 

 swampy, covered to the water's edge with the usual growth of 

 mangrove and nipa palm ; and then we arrive at the town of 

 Klang, the capital of the territory, situated on the first high 

 ground. The fort is perched up on a hill overlooking the 

 town, and on a higher hill a little farther back— as if to keep 

 an eye over all — is the British Residency. 



I was very kindly received by Her Majesty's Resident, 

 Captain Douglas, and during my entire stay in Klang I was 

 very hospitably entertained by II. C. Syers, Esquire, Superin- 

 tendent of Police. 



I soon found there were no large or specially valuable 

 animals to be obtained in the immediate vicinity of Klang, so 

 I engaged a boat to take me down the river and up the coast 

 a few miles by sea \o a Malay village called Jerom, which is 

 about one mile from the mouth of the Sungei Bulu, a little 

 river fairly swarming with crocodiles. Here I lived twelve 

 days in the house of Datu Puteh, and devoted all my energies 



