FASCICULI MALATENSES 
xv 
Trang 
This state marches with Patalung on the east and reaches the sea on the 
west, including within its jurisdiction a number of islands which the native 
Mahommedans regard as appertaining to the sultanate of Kedah. The interior 
of Trang, where Semangs are said to have been formerly numerous, is occupied 
partly by Siamese rice cultivators and partly by Chinese pepper planters, but 
the coast people are either Mahommedan, Samsams, or pagan Orang Laut. The 
road from Lampam, a good sandy track recently set in order, passes through little 
but cultivated ground between the base of the western slope of the main 
range, which reaches an altitude of several thousand feet at this point, and the 
large market town of Tap-tien, formerly the capital of Trang, from which 
I proceeded by boat to Kantang, the whole journey taking three days. The 
banks of the Trang River are here densely wooded, but the jungle has a peculiar 
character, due to its estuarine nature at a considerable distance from the sea, 
for, even as high as Tap-tien, there are a number of small floating islands, 
composed of the roots of nipa palms with other vegetation entangled among 
them, which float up stream with every tide. In the neighbourhood of 
Kantang this palm is largely cultivated for the sake of its sap, out of which 
sugar is made, and of its young leaves, which serve in place of cigarette papers. 
Chau Mai. A place on the coast, a few miles north of the estuary of 
the Trang River. Formerly the limestone cliff's at this place, and the caves 
which they contain, were regarded as sacred by the Orang Laut, who deposited 
their dead in the latter, but Chinese pepper planters, searching for bats’-dung 
guano, have dispelled the sacred influences. The character of the vegetation on 
this coast is strikingly varied, for immediately along the shore there is usually a 
belt of casuarina trees, and behind them there are vast tangled mangrove 
creeks, the trees of which give support to many orchids and other epiphytes, 
while the characteristic flora of the cliff's resemble that on the limestone 
islands of the Taleh Sap, having as its most conspicuous member a large 
candelabra-like euphorbia. I saw among these cliff's a land crab some six or 
eight inches across the carapace ; it appeared to be one of the Oxypodidae , 
which has ventured further from the sea than many of the species of this 
family are in the habit of doing, but my men unfortunately left a specimen 
which I had obtained behind. The duck, Asarcornis scutellata, 1 so scarce in 
collections, appears to be common on the Trang coast, going inland every 
evening and passing in numbers over the town of Kantang. 
Kantang. The new capital of Trang, founded about ten years ago by 
the Chinese hereditary governor, who has now been promoted to the high 
i. The ‘Skeat’ specimen was procured by myself in the interior of Patalung, and the note on my label gave 
the statement that the species was migratory as a native belief (Cf. Bonhote, P.Z.S., 1901, Vol. I, p. 80). 
