56 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 188*9, 
an appendage to the larger group of the Seychelles. 
The Seychelles are mountainous, rising in some 
places abruptly from the sea. The vegetation is 
luxuriant and tropical, for the islands are close to 
the equator. The population consists of 15,752 souls, 
of which 7,976 are males, and 7,776 females, 
thus reversing the order in other parts of the world, 
where the number of females invariably predomi- 
nates. The revenue in 1837, amounted to Rl, 71,162, 
and the expenditure to Rl, 28, 118. The value of the 
exports exceeded that of the imports by nearly two 
lakhs of rupees. During 1887, sixty-seven ships 
touched at these islands, including twelve men-of-war. 
Education is not neglected, for there are twenty- 
two Government schools with 1,801 pupils. The 
inhabitants are of several races and creeds, 
French, English, African, Madagascan pure bred and 
half-bred. 
The principal port of the Archipelago is Victoria, 
on the north-eastern side of the island of Mahe\ 
The Seychelles enjoy peculiar immunity from the 
dreadful hurricanes whioh sweep across the neigh- 
bouring seas. The islands produce a large amount 
of timber, useful for ship-building purposes. Cocoa- 
nut trees grow remarkably well, and so does cotton, 
both of which furnish the greater part of the 
articles of commerce with the outer world. Cocoa- 
nut oil and tortoise shell are also exported in 
considerable quantities. Rich people in the island, 
i.e., people rich compared to the majority of the 
inhabitants, show their prosperity by keeping 
preserves of tortoises, as aristocrats keep deer in 
England. Some of these tortoises have Vandyck 
edges to their shells, and are valuable for making 
tortoise-shells combs. A single shell will some- 
times fetch as much as £10. The want of labour 
is felt everywhere. The introduction of coolie 
labour from India has been long under 
consideration, and it is strange that more has not 
been done in this matter, considering the natural 
fertility of the islands, and their important geo- 
graphical position. The truth of the matter has, 
however, been recently pointed out by a visitor, 
who states that " the people have not sufficient 
energy to work with their own hands and no money 
to pay f pr labour, and they are consequently being 
slowly ruined. Everyone is on the edge of starva- 
tion in the midst of riches." Most of the houses 
are built of wood thatched with the leaves of the 
coco-de-mer tree, and are of the poorost descrip- 
tion. The scenery is said to be magnificent. "The 
little islands have groves of waving casuarinas on 
their tops, and fine large-leaved trees shading the 
sandy shore all along, varied with patches of coco- 
nut and bread fruit, and above the deep purple- 
red, stony-topped hills, with forests between 
the famous coco-de-mer trees are dotted here 
and there among them like golden stars." The 
fruit of this peculiar tree is a kind of twin 
fruit like two coconuts joined together. 
Great virtues as medicine and antidote were sup- 
posed to reside in these fruits. The old belief 
was that the fruit was produced on a palm, growing 
below the sea, (hence its name) whose fronds, 
according to Malay seamen, were sometimes seen 
in the quiet seas on the Sumatra Coast. The 
medical virtues of the nut were famous amongst 
all Eastern people, including the Chinese. The 
East India Company once paid as much as R300 
for one of these nuts, in order to make a present 
of it to a Nawab. 
Very severe quarantine regulations were some 
year ; ago imposed on the Seychelles islands by 
the Mauritius Government, and all trade was 
consequently stopped. Such distress ensued that 
ttlahe' began to feel the want of the simplest 
necessaries of life, and every thing went up to famine 
prices. The poor could not afford to buy rice, 
and were too weak to do any work in their 
own fields. Those who own coconut plantation 
in the islands, are usually well enough off, but the 
people who have to subsist on agriculture are indigent 
for the reasons specified above. Want of water, too, 
is almost universally felt. The people on the 
He Aride have to UBe the brackish water that filters 
through the sand from the sea, and La Digue, a 
large fertile island, with nearly a thousand inha- 
bitants, is almost as badly off for this prime 
necessity of life. Cit/rieuse island is set apart for 
lepers, as is Molokai in the Sandwich Islands in 
the South Pacific. The first thought of the poor 
creatures sent there is to procure a coffin, for other- 
wise they are buried without one: " They go on 
scraping up money to buy one, or working day 
and night till they have made one, when they 
put it into their huts, and sit down content." 
Altogether the conditions of existence of the in- 
habitants of these Isles do not seem very happy 
notwithstanding their fertile soil, and the beauti, 
ful scenery which surrounds them. Let us hope 
that the autonomy just granted to them may 
prove to be the starting point of greater prosperity 
in the future. It seems absurd that Mauritius, 
situated nearly a thousand miles from this depen- 
dent group of islands, has long been allowed to 
exercise an authority over them that has at times 
had disastrous effects. It could hardly be expected 
that the Seychelles could prosper under such an 
arrangement. — Madras Mail. 
+. 
Silk. — The Euang-pao says that in the Kuang- 
tung province the crop of silk bids fair to be 
excellent this year ; but mulberry leaves are dear 
so that the poor people cannot afford to rear a 
very large number of silk-worms. The quality of 
the silk will, it is anticipated, be good.— N.-C. 
Herald, May 11th. 
A Pkivate Electric Railway. — Ceylon is 
rather better off than Scotland in point of water- 
falls and the day ought not to be far off when the 
power at present running waste should be used for 
electrio purposes in different ways. The following is 
from the London Times of May 14th : — 
Scotland has so many waterfalls that it is not sur- 
prising to find a beginning made in utilizing their 
power for electric railways. The residence of Mr. 
J. Monteith, Carstairs-house, has recently been united 
to Oarstairs Junction by an electric line 1J mile long, 
running through the grounds of the mansion. Messrs. 
Anderson and Munro, of Glasgow, are the engineers of 
the line, which is worked by the Cleghorn Falls, some 
three miles distant on the River Mouse. A turbine 
transforms the power of tbe falls into electricity by 
means of a dynamo of the Goolden type, giving 400 
volts and about 40 ampferes. The current is carried 
by four bare copper wires run on poles and supported 
by liquid insulators. The metallic circuit is complete 
throughout, no earth connexion being used. The 
conductors laid along the line consist of rectangular 
rods of very pure iron, placed, one on each side, 
about a foot from the rails. They are supported ou 
special insulators ou an elastic fastening of steel, 
which allows of no side oscillation, and permits the 
rods to expand freely. These insulators are in turn 
supported upon iron roils, ten inches high, planted 
ou the sleepers. The gauge of the line is 30 inches, 
and a handsome carriage, capable of running at a 
speed of 35 miles an hour, has been provided. The 
line can be run direct from the dynamo, or 
through the agency of accumulators, of which there 
is a supply at Carstairs-house for the electric light- 
ing installation. The line is built lor private pur- 
poses and chiefly for transit between the mansion 
and the railway station; but it can be used for 
farm and estate purposes and has been arranged 
with branches and sidings to that end. 
