1832.J 
STRAIT OF SUNDA. 
247 
refreshments. We hope, however, to be excused for making 
another short extract from this close observer and elegant writer. 
" Of the many little islands scattered over the surface of the 
strait we visited only two, that are situated at. no great distance 
from the shore of Java. They are known to seamen by the 
names of the Cap and the Button. In a deep cavern, worked by 
the sea into the side of the former, we disturbed such a multitude 
of bats and swallows, that we were literally driven back by the 
successive volleys in which they assailed us. The bats, in par- 
ticular, were excessively troublesome, by flying entirely at ran- 
dom, owing to their imperfect vision on encountering the light at 
the mouth of the cave. The swallows were of that species which, 
in the Sy sterna Naturce,, is called esculenta, from the abundant use 
made of their nests in Chinese cookery. We found some thou- 
sands of these nests attached to the sides of the cavern, some 
containing young birds, and others eggs. The nests were of an 
oval shape, slightly joined to each other at the extremities of the 
longest diameter. Their external coating appeared to be the 
filaments of some species of seaweed, cemented together by a 
viscous substance, which was collected probably on the seashore ; 
stripped of this coating, they were about the eighth of an inch in 
thickness, had much the appearance of a piece of hard glue, 
serai-transparent, and evidently composed of the same kind of 
gelatinous matter which kept together the interior fibres, and 
with which the stones and marine plants on the shores of the 
island were covered. On the Button Island we shot an inguana, 
which measured four feet in length, and the flesh of which, when 
roasted, was as white and delicate as that of a chicken." 
Cap and Button Islands are about six miles from each other. 
The first is called by the Malays Pulo Oolar, or Snake Island, 
which bears north-northeast from Anger village, distant about 
four or five miles, and nearly east-southeast from the south part 
of Thwart-the-Way, between which and the Cap is the channel, 
having various depths of water, from twenty to fifty fathoms, over 
an uneven and generally rocky bottom. The Button, or Great 
Cap, as it is sometimes called, is situated in latitude 5° 53' south, 
and two leagues north from the Small Cap, of similar appear- 
ance, but larger and higher, steep, and covered with small trees. 
Seyen miles east-by-north from the Button is Bantam, or St 
