190 
VOYAOE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[Februarji 
unfortunate wretches are afflicted with the elephantiasis, a dreadful 
disease, in which the skin comes off in flakes, and the flesh falls 
from the bones. This disease being deemed highly infectious, the 
hapless sufferer is driven from society into the woods, where food 
is conveyed to him by his relations, until death puts a termination 
to his misery. They are almost totally ignorant of the science 
of medicine or surgery, and are frequently annoying in their 
solicitations for remedies and medical advice ; so that visiters 
frequently resort to quackery to get rid of their importunities. 
The face of the country, a short distance from the seacoast, is 
distinguished by a bold outline of prominent features, sometimes 
rising into lofty mountains, like most other parts of the western 
side of the island. The mountains abound with wild beasts of 
various species. Here are found the elephant, the black and 
striped tiger, rhinoceros, deer, antelope, wild-hog, &g. Reptiles 
are numerous, and many of them venomous. Among those of 
the serpent kind is a snake which possesses the chamelion's 
faculty of assuming the colour of any object with which it comes 
in contact. Though small in size, its bite is almost instant death,- 
AUigators abound in the rivers, and the guana is also found here. 
The boa-constrictor is said to be a formidable tenant of the in- 
terior forests. 
Having thus given as full a description of the island and inhab- 
itants of Sumatra as our limits will permit, we cannot, perhaps, 
make a more appropriate conclusion to this chapter than by briefly 
describing a number of smaller islands which line its western 
coast in a parallel chain, lying about sixty miles distant, and ex- 
tending nearly the whole length of the parent island, for in that 
relation we consider them. These islets, for such they are, com- 
pared with Sumatra, are at present very imperfectly known 
except that several of them are from seventy to eighty miles in 
length, and that the inhabitants of those which have been visited 
differ materially from each other in appearance, language, and 
character. On the charts, with few exceptions, the outlines of 
these islands are drawn wholly from imagination. As there 
has never been any actual survey, a few only of the points are 
known with much precision, although the passages between them 
are much frequented by our vessels. 
The channels along the west coast of Sumatra are three in 
