SIH THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES. 77 
son of the quantity of soil necessarily washed down 
in the process of irrigating the land for the rice cul- 
tivation. Most of them require the application of 
jetties, or piers, to deepen the passage at their en- 
trance. In some parts extensive swamps are found; 
and among the hills, several very heautiful lakes of 
small dimensions are discovered, some of them 
evidently formed of the craters of extinct volcanoes. 
In summing up what may he called his geographi- 
cal and physical description of the island, the author 
thus proceeds. “ The general aspect of Java, on the 
northern coast, is low ; in many places swampy, 
and overgrown with mangrove trees and hushes, 
particularly towards the west. The southern coast, 
on the contrary, consists almost entirely of a series 
of rocks and cliffs, which rise perpendicularly to a 
considerable height. In the interior, stupendous 
mountains stretch longitudinally throughout .the 
island ; wliile others of an inferior elevation, and in- 
numerahle ranges of hiUs, running in various direc- 
tions, serve to form and confine plains and valleys 
of various elevations and extent. On the northern 
side, the ascent is in general very gradual from the 
sea-coast to the immediate hase of the mountains ; 
piuticularly in the western parts of the island, where 
it has the greatest breadth, and where the moun- 
tains are situated far inland. In approaching the 
mountains which lie at the back of Batavia, there 
is a gradual hut almost imperceptible declivity for 
about forty miles ; in other parts, where the hills 
