CHAP. XIII.] 



SOIL AND VEGETATION. 



199 



vegetation is richer, thorny shrubs and climbers are so 

 abundant as to make the thickets qoite impenetrable. 



The soil seems very poor, consisting chiefly of decora- 

 posing clayey shales ; and the bare earth and rock is almost 

 everywhere visible. The drought of the hot season is so 

 severe that most of the streams dry up in the plains before 

 they reach the sea ; everything becomes burnt up, and the 

 leaves of the larger trees i;ill as completely as m our winter. 

 On the mountmna from two to four thousand feet elevation 

 there is a much moister atmosphere, so that potatoes and 

 other European products can be grown all the year round. 

 Besides ponies, almost the only exports of Timor are 

 sandal-wood and bees' -was. Tlie sandal-wood (Sautalnm 

 sp.) is the produce of a small tree, which grows sparingly 

 in the mountains of Timor and many of the other islands 

 in. the far East. Tlie wood is of a fine yellow colour, and 

 possesses a well-known delightfid fragrance wiiich is won- 

 derfully permanent. It is brought down to DeUi in small 

 logs, and is chiefly export^nl to China, where it is largely 

 used to burn in tlie temples, and in the houses of the 

 wealthy. 



Tlio bees'-wax is a stdl more important and valuable 

 product, formed by the wild bees (Apis dorsata), which 

 build huge honeycombs, suspended in the open air from 

 the under-side of the lofty branches of the highest trees. 

 These are of a Bemicircular form, and often three or 

 four feet in diameter. I once saw the natives take a 

 bees* nest, and a very interesting sight it was. In the 

 valley where I used to collect insects, I one day saw three 

 or four Timorese men and boys under a high tree, and, 

 looldng up, saw on a very lofty horizontal branch three 

 large bees' combs. The tree was straight and smooth- 

 barked and without a branch, till at seventy or eighty 

 feet from the ground it gave out the hmb which the bees 

 had chosen for their home. As the men were evidently 

 looking after the bees, I waited to watch their operations. 

 One of them first produced a long piece of wood apparently 

 the stem of a small tree or creeper, which he had brought 

 with him, and began splitting it through in several direc- 

 tions, which shovve^l that it was ven' t<>ugh and stringy. 

 He then wrapped it in palm-leaves, which were secured 



