LOSS OF GOVERNOE RAP?L^'S COLLECTION. 489 



tHs port, Ilk ship was nearly loaded with the ani- 

 mals of the region, living and mountedj but, the 

 same evening, when not more than fifty miles from 

 the coast, she took fire, and her crew and passengers 

 harely escaped with their lives. Not only all Sir 

 Stamford's specimens, but all his official documents, 

 and the many private papers he had been gatheiing 

 during twelve years, were iiTeparably lost. Sueli a 

 strange fatality seems to attend the shipment of 

 specimens iu natui*al liistoiy from the East, but I 

 trust that mine may be an exception to this rule * 



Api-il 20th. — Kode to Ujang Padang, a low bluff 

 about twenty feet high, on the north side of Ben- 

 coolen Bay. It is composed of a stiff, red clay, rest- 

 ing on other layers of lead-colored clay, which are 

 stratified, and contain many fossUs of recent shells, a 

 few of which appeared in the lower strata of the red 

 clay. These fossiliferous strata probably extend for 

 some distance north and south, but are concealed by 

 the overlying sti-ata oj red clay, for they reappear 

 again at the foot of a bluff between this point and 

 Bencoolen. 



From Cape ludrapura southward, a strip of low, 

 comparatively level land borders the shore, but north 

 of that point the ocean comes up to the bases of the 

 hills and mountains. South of that point there are 

 a few small islands near the shore, but north of it 



* WtUe this work is gobg to the press, the specimens referred to 

 have all arrived in perfect order, thoogh the ship that hronght thera 

 was oWiged to put in twice ifl distress?, having one time hcen nearly 

 dbmasted hy a eydoae, that kept her on her heam ends for eight 

 houra. 



