380 



ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 



species) gives to the woods of Australia the same 

 dull olive-brown and monotonous tint over the whole 

 bar. In some of the valleys near Hobarton, in- 

 deed, and in Port Arthur, among groves of tree- 

 ferns, which abound there under gum-trees of im- 

 mense size, there is a greater resemblance to rich 

 tropical vegetation than can be found at Port Es- 

 sington, in their stunted woods of Eucalyptus, sprin- 

 kled only with a few small fan -palms, cabbage-palm, 

 or pandanus trees. Here in Timor, on the contrary, 

 not a gum-tree was to be seen, and even in the driest 

 and most barren parts, on the summits of the rocky 

 high land near the coast, some tokens of the tropics 

 might be observed. It would have been difficult to 

 get altogether out of sight of some noble palm, or 

 group of cocoa-nuts, or bananas. 



While admiring the beautiful view from where 

 we sat, I managed to ask my little Malay if he had 

 ever been in that direction, up the country, to which 

 he replied in the negative. " I should go," I said, 

 " if I staid here long enough on which he started 

 up before me ; his black eyes glistening, and with a 

 very significant " Ah f drew his finger across his 

 throat. It appears, therefore, that the Malay popu- 

 lation attach the idea of danger to penetrating the 

 interior of the country, even a few miles. I do not 

 think, however, that to a European, properly at- 

 tended and speaking the language, there would be 

 any thing to fear beyond the climate. Lieut. Ince, 

 who went in a boat to the head of Coupang Bay 



