MODE OF NAVIGATING MTTD-FLATS. 



57 



tlie anchorage, and the naiTow straits that connect it 

 mth the sea. These straits, though naiTow, are not 

 dangerous, and this may be said to be the only good 

 harbor that is ireqtiented on the island of Java. On 

 the south coast, at Chilachap, there is a safe and well- 

 sheltered anchorage, but it has very little trade. 



At evening, when the water is ebbing, flocks of 

 white herons range themselves in lines along its re- 

 treating edge, and calmly await the approach of some 

 unluclcy fish. Then the fishing-boats come up from the 

 east, spreading out their white sails, and forming a 

 counterpart to the lines of white herons along the 

 shore. 



The natives, unable to walk to their huts on the 

 banks, have a most novel and rapid mode of navigating 

 these mud-flats. A boai-d about two feet wide, five or 

 sis feet long, and curved up at one end like the nm- 

 ner of a sled, is placed on the soft mud, and the fish- 

 erman rests the lefb knee on it wliile he kicks with 

 the right foot, in just the way that boys^ush them- 

 selves on their sleds over ice or snow. In this way 

 they go as fast as a man would walk on solid ground. 



Like Batavia and Samarang, Svirabaya* is sit- 

 uated on both sides of a small river, on low land, 

 but not in a morass, like the old city of Batavia, 

 and yet much nearer the shipping. This river has 

 been changed into a canal by walling in its banks. 

 Near its entrance it is lined on one side with nice 



*Tli© populfitiott of the Residency of Surabayfl^ which also indudes 

 lhat of the city of the same nam©, is 1,2T8,600. Of these, 5,124 ar© Eu- 

 ropeotiB, 1,201,271 are nativefs 7,603 are Chinese, 1,477 are Arahs, and 

 8,125 arc from other Eaflteni nations. 



