5 
inches. The West coast is exposed to sudden squalls of 
short duration, knouTi as " Sumatras" from the direction 
whence they blow; while the opposite side is closed to naviga- 
tion during the North-east monsoon. 
The fauna of the Peninsula, which is unusually rich, is allied, 
like the flora and the inhabitants, rather to that of the Eastern 
Archipelago than to the main continent. Here are the one- 
hurned rhinoceros, Malay tapir, elephant and hog, all of the same 
species as those of Sumatra ■ also a small bear (bruaug)^ 
found elsewhere only in Borneo, as well as the Sunda ox of 
Java, besides two kinds of bison said to be peculiar to the 
Peninsula. On the other hand, the Asiatic tiger has extended 
his range throughout the whole region, even crossing over to 
Singapore and other adjacent islands. Of quadrumana, there 
are no less than nine species, including the chimpanzee, the 
kongkang, the black and white ungka, but apparently not the 
orang-outang. 
Although the Peninsula has been coasted round by Eu- 
ropeans, and at a few places occupied by Forts and Factories, 
ever since the beginning of the i6th century : and although 
the interior is now^here more distant than loo miles from the sea, 
yet it still remains one of the least-known lands in Asia, and one 
of the few regions of which the greater portion can still be 
said to have been unvisited by civilised man. More correct 
surveys of its West side, however, have been pushed on in 
the last few years, and generally since the change in the admi- 
nistration of the Perak and Selingor States (1874). 
PoliticaL — The Peninsula may be considered as politically 
divided between Great Britain and various groups of self- 
governed States, more or less under the protection and influence 
