6 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



little more than a skeleton map at present, drawn to a large scale, 

 but it is getting gradually filled up as information comes in. 



And information does come from many sources. The other 

 day I saw a map which had been sent in by the Siamese Go- 

 vernment, which I considered a great curiosity, so much so that 

 I hope it may be exhibited in the Raffles Museum. This was 

 to show an important piece of boundary line far up in the north. 

 Then there is another map being made by the Maharaja of 

 Johor in the south. Trained surveyors are clearing up old 

 puzzles in various parts between these extremes. And every 

 officer in the English Colonies, or in the Native States, who is 

 called by duty or curiosity to travel beyond the limits of the 

 well known and well surveyed districts, has an opportunity of 

 adding something to the knowledge of the country which is 

 already possessed. All new facts, thus acquired by officials or 

 private individuals, are made known to the Government here, 

 and, after being verified as far as possible by comparison with 

 existing data, are recorded on the map. So that there is reason 

 to expect that those great blank spaces will be filled up in time. 



And think of what we know those great blanks must mean. 

 We know there are great mountain ranges, the back-bone of the 

 Peninsula, clothed with all the diversities of vegetable life, which 

 the lowered temperature of elevated lands in the tropies makes 

 possible. Then there must be a great water system, carrying 

 off the moisture deposited on the hig*h lands through the plains 

 below. One of the latest discoveries is, that the great river 

 Pahang, running up from the south, is but a branch of a much 

 larger stream running from the north, and uniting itself with 

 the Pahang at upwards of one hundred miles from its mouth. 



In the dense Equatorial forests, which cover the greater 

 part of these hill-sides and plains, forests, which are now only 

 entered here and there by a few individual natives, to cut down 

 the gutta producing trees, or to collect the few other natural 

 products, of which the commercial value is known to them, and 

 perhaps by charcoal burners for the purpose of turning some 

 small portion of those glorious forests into portable fuel, what 

 a hoard of wealth there is for the Botanist and the Naturalist ; 

 and what splendid possibilities for the Planter aud the Merchant. 

 Mr. Wallace tells us that, during the six years he was collecting 

 in these latitudes, his Natural History specimens reached the 

 enormous number of 125,660, of which a very large proportion 

 were entirely new to Science. With such an example as that in 

 view, it is not easy to over-estimate the gains to every branch 

 of natural science, that might be expected from a thorough 



