Plants of Prince of Wales Island. 



Prince of Wales's Island is of a form nearly rectangular, its 

 ength from North to South being about eleven or twelve miles, 

 and its breadth, from East to West about half that space. Its 

 North-east point, on which stand George Town and Fort Corn- 

 wallis, is in Lat. 5°25' N. and Long. 100°18' east. It is di- 

 vided into an easterly and westerly region, by a ridge of hills, 

 extending through nearly its length. On the highest part of the 

 ridge, is erected a flag-staff, for notifying, by signal, the appear- 

 ance of ships at sea. The height of this peak, (if it may be 

 called so as the table is about eighty yards in length) has been 

 variously estimated ; and all the conjectures I heard on the 

 subject were beyond the truth. To ascertain it, I measured a 

 base of 670 feet, on a plain, as near as could be obtained to 

 the bottom of the hill, which gave the perpendicular height of 

 the highest point 1192 feet. The length of the flag-staff on 

 the hill is fifty feet. This, being view T ed from a Bungalow in 

 George Town, through a three foot reflecting telescope, and 

 measured by an object glass micrometer attached to the teles- 

 cope, was found to subtend an angle of 6' 54", giving the 

 distance, in a straight line, about 4f miles. 



The table land on the top of the hill runs from North 

 to South. On the North extremity is the flag-staff, and on 

 the South, a Bungalow, belonging to the Lieutenant Governor. 

 There are two roads cut in the side of the mountain, for ascend- 

 ing to the summit, one from the South-ward, and another from 

 the North- ward. The last of these was finished during my stay 

 on the Island. It is something longer than the former, but of 

 much easier ascent ; and the bottom of this road being nearer 

 to the town than the other, the whole journey, from town to 

 the top of the hill, is considerably shortended by it. About 

 half way up these two roads unite, so that the upper part is 

 common to both. 



The forest trees, by the road-side, have the lower part of 

 their trunks, for above five or six feet above the ground, formed 



Jour S. B. R. A. Soc. No. S3, 1909- 



