SINGAPORE. 379 



sociable and agreeable, but is necessarily small, being confined to but 

 sixty or seventy individuals. 



The island of Singapore is composed of red clay, sandstone, and 

 in some places granite. The locality of the town appears to have 

 been a salt-marsh, with a narrow strip of rocks and sand near the 

 beach. In consequence of its rapid increase, they are beginning now 

 to fill up the low ground with the surplus earth taken from the sur- 

 rounding hills. 



The highest point of Singapore is called Buhit Tima, and does not 

 exceed, it is said, five hundred feet in elevation. Although this height 

 is but seven miles distant from the town, 1 was told it has never yet 

 been visited by a European and seldom by natives, on account of the 

 obstructed nature of the intervening country; there are a few small 

 fishing or piratical establishments (the two names are synonymous 

 here, for when the people are not engaged in the one, they are in the 

 other), on the north and west end of the island. The length of the 

 island is twenty-seven miles, and its greatest breadth is fifteen. It is 

 divided from the peninsula by the old strait of Singapore, so long 

 followed by navigators, for reasons it is now difficult to surmise, when 

 the short, wide, and safe channel was open to them, which is now 

 altogether used. 



The botany of Singapore is far from being thoroughly known, not- 

 withstanding so many scientific expeditions have visited it ; nor is it 

 likely to become so very soon, infested as the woods are with tigers. 

 It is remarkable that before the island was inhabited, tigers did not 

 exist in it, although there were great numbers of them in the peninsula 

 opposite ; and it is said that they have only made their appearance 

 here within the last six or seven years. Indeed, one of the reasons 

 assigned for its selection, was the absence of this ferocious animal, and 

 of the wild elephant. It is to be presumed, therefore, that the tigers 

 come in search of food, by swimming over the narrow straits. Some 

 fifty persons have been killed by them within the last two years, within 

 two miles of the centre of the town, and two hundred in all are reported 

 as having become victims to these beasts. Criminals and thieves were 

 formerly in the habit of escaping to the woods or jungle, but of late 

 years this has not been attempted by them. 



The government, in consequence of the attacks of tigers becoming 

 so frequent, and of the jungle being so much infested by them, offered 

 a premium of one hundred dollars for every tiger's head that should 

 be brought in. This induced large parties to hunt them ; but, since 

 the government have reduced the reward to fifty dollars, this daring 

 business has not been followed ; not, however, from any scarcity of 



