OCCUPATION* OP TI1F, NATIVES. 



large rafts of bamboo, and timber for house and 

 bout-building, with spars for vessels. These spars 

 average about 60 fret in length by 12 in girth. Some 

 even exceed 72 feet long by 18 feet in girth ; and 

 these sell, each, for about sixty Spanish dollars. A 

 kayoo-krangi.wo:>d rudder for a junk of five or 

 six hundred tons burden costs, in its rough state, 

 about one hundred Spanish dollars. The varieties 

 of wood found in the forests of Penang und the oppo- 

 site coast will bo emuneiated in a subsequent part 

 of this Work. The cutting and preparing &f artaps 

 for if latching houses, and cujangs for affording tem- 

 porary shelter to the crews of boats, affords employ- 

 ment to numbers. Dammer-resin, dammer oil, 

 rattans and dragon's blood, are sought for at con- 

 siderable risk from w ild beasts. The eggs of the 

 pinnioo, or sea-turtle, and of the toontong, or ri ver 

 turtle — w hich last are of an oval shape — are eagerly 

 searched for and sold at the rate of half a dollar the 

 hundred. 7 lie tooniong'a eggs are less oily than the 

 round eggs of the pinnioo. 



Many parties, consisting of from twenty to thirty 

 men, each, proceed northward up the coast to the 

 numerous rocky and picturesque islands where the 

 sarang hnrong, or edible bird's nest, is procureable. 

 There they become sub-renters of one or more islands 

 during the season, which lasts from December to the 

 middle or end of iMareh. 



A large portion of these islands belong to the Bri- 

 tish, by right of their possession of the Tenasserim 

 provinces. The remainder appertain to the Siamese . 

 Some of these nesters return with large profits; 

 but there is, too oAen, a considerable deal of litigation 

 subsequent to their speculations, owing to the number 

 of partners, the loans advanced by Chinese, and to the 

 negligent way in which contracts are entered into. 



