250 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct. 1, 1903. 
it may be gathered that preparations from milk 
are not in much use amongst the Javans. Cooked 
rice is exposed for sale in the bazaars, as also is 
Indian corn, roasted in the ear. A " kati", or 
a pound and a third, is the usual daily allowance 
of rice for a native, along with salted fish, and 
greens to season the meal, which is eaten on a 
mat laid on the floor or ground. Water with 
meals is the almost exclusive beverage, bat tea 
and coffee are obtainable in the bazaars. Salted 
eggs are an important article in the Javan diet — 
they are prepared for preservation in a mixture 
of salt and ashes, in which they are kept for a 
fortnight, and are then good for many months. 
The principal meals are at noon and in the even- 
ing; but for the travellers by road there are numer- 
ous eating houses, where cooked food is obtainable 
at any hour of the day ; beef is more indulged in 
than any other meat, and as a rule it is under- 
cooked, tough and undesirable ; poultry is in the 
same category, and the mutton, which is seldom 
seen, is not much better. 
The accommodation and the entertainment pro- 
vided for Europeans in the hotels is fairly good. 
The victuals are peculiar, especially at the midday 
meal, when they have what is called the ' rice- 
table,' an agglomeration of dishes of poached eggs, 
fish, meat, &c., offered by many attendants, and, 
as a rule, accepted and piled on to a liberal 
foundation of rice, tlie mass, or mess, being 
consumed with the aided relish of many condi- 
ments. It requires a little practice to get used 
to this fare of so many things in a heap so as to 
enjoy it, as the Dutch seem to do, by making it 
the principal part of the meal. The ab.sence of 
bread in the fare provided strikes the average 
Briton as much as the overwhelming variety 
provided for the ' rice-table.' Many of the Dutch 
ladies appear at the midday meal in what is more 
or less the native costume, the ' sarong ' for a 
skirt, the ' kabaya ' or muslin jacket, and sandals 
minus stockings. 
KOAD AND RAIL. 
The communications by road and railway are 
good and faiiiy plentiful, the main line of railway 
runs from Anjer in the extreme west, to Banjoe 
Wangle in the far east, with here and there branch 
lines connecting with the principal coast towns, 
or running up the main lateral valleys. The route 
of the main line may be considered as through the 
central valley of the west into the great valleys of 
Mid-Java and the east. The first line laid down 
connected Saraarang on the north coast, with 
Solo and Djokja, the capitals of the two 
native States, in the interior— this was laid 
on the 4 feet 8^ inches gauge, and by a com- 
pany. Afterwards the line was made from Batavia 
to Djokja on the metre gauge, and from Soera- 
baya to Solo on the same gauge. The result of 
mixing the gauges is that in travelling from the 
political capital in the West, to the commercial 
capital in the East, there is a break of gauge at 
both Djokja and Solo, and the Dutch did not seem 
in any hurry to do away with the obstruction to 
through carriages, either by a third rail or by 
altering the broad to the narrow gauge, over the 
forty miles which separates about 500 miles of 
metre gauge in the East from about the same 
number of miles of metre gauge on the western side. 
Travelling by rail in Java, as in India, is 
cheap ; first-class about IJ pence per mile, and 
third the one-fourth of that. Carriages are fairly 
comfortable, and the speed moderate. There is 
no night travelling, and no apparent reason why 
there should not be any. Refreshment rooms are 
a big fraud. There is hardly anything in the 
way of solids but a badly cooked, tough " beef- 
steak." Fortunately the best of bananas and 
other tropical fruits are plentiful. Considering 
the population, increasing so rapidly, and the re- 
sources oi Java in soil and water, it is not a 
thousand or twelve hundred miles of railway it 
should have but twice that to develope its wealth 
in the rich provision of Nature. 
The State railways of Java, as regards alignment 
and construction, are supposed to be models to 
follow, but as to their cost information was 
not easily obtainable. As may naturally be sup- 
posed with so numerous a population, the pas- 
senger trains, and especially, the third-class 
carriages, are crowded, and the same noisy gabble 
of many voices is heard with both arrivals and 
departures. In East and Mid Java there are 
between one and two hundred miles of narrow 
gauge steam tramways of apparently cheap con- 
struction, which seem to answer well as subsidiary 
feeder lines. They are on a par with the cheaply 
constructed two feet and two and a half feet 
gauges of India. 
MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 
To see tree ferns in abundance and luxuriance, 
one should take the trip from Pasoerawan or Pro- 
bolingo, across the Tengger mountains via Lesali 
to Malang on the other side, a journey of at least 
40 miles, which is best done on pony back. Out of 
many attractions for the last few miles going up 
and I he first few going down the other side, the 
tree ferns are the principal. The forest in great 
measure has been removed, and the ferns are, 
therefore, seen to advantage, conspicuously adorn- 
ing everywhere the ravines and natural water- 
courses. In the higher zone, reaching to 6,000 or 
7,000 teet elevation, the cultivation is limited to 
maize, potatoes, and cabbages. The latter especi- 
ally are grown extensively by the Tenggerese, and 
from their produce the greater part of Java is 
supplied. In the middle zone — beginning about 
4,500 feet — are the cinchona and cofi'ee plantations^ 
chiefly owned by the Government, and in the lower 
zone, beginning about 2,500 feet, commences the 
finer maize, ending on the plain with rice, sugar, 
indigo, tobacco, coconuts, etc. 
There is not a great deal of virgin forest to be 
seen on the Tengger mountain ; it has been mostly 
removed in the development of cultivation. The 
wholesale removal would appear to have been in- 
judiciousj if one may judge from the efforts of re- 
placement by casuarinas as wind belts. To see 
virgin forest on a large extent one has to go fur- 
ther east across the slopes leading away northward 
from the great volcanic mountain "Raveng." 
There is seen the forest primeval, in which stand 
mighty monarchs with buttressed trunks, and 
great clumps of giant bamboos, archinp; overhead, 
and showing long'vistas like the aisles of a grand 
Cathedral, one of Nature's own making. Then 
elsewhere comes an undergrowth of small bamboos, 
wild ginger, magnificent tree ferns and creepers in 
great variety and luxuriance. This forest began 
its growth after the mighty "Kaven^»" had ceased 
erupting. The whole of the erupted matter is not 
yet converted into soil, as becomes apparent where 
the formation is exposed, and hence Nature's 
provision for the support, by buttresses, of the 
trees grown on a substratum of black volcanic 
sand. / 
