74 A GLANCE AT RH10. 
that are used in buildings for flags to be laid in flooring <&c. 
The island of Bintang as noted before contains many projecting 
head lands between which are frequently deep bays and wide 
creeks, and there being no large rivers to deposit their alluvium, 
wc find that what otherwise would long ago have formed into 
valleys are still claimed by the waters of the sea. Some of those 
bays nearly divided the Island, and one we noticed on our ap¬ 
proach to the Harbour of Rhio, penetrated its wide surface as far 
as Large Bintang hill, whose wooded slopes rose abruptly from 
the edge of the waters. The surface of the country is general¬ 
ly low, and can seldom exceed 80 to 100 feet in height, as is 
the case with Singapore and a great part of the territory of Johore, 
and those elevations that become conspicuous are isolated. The 
highest of those is Large Bintang Hill, about 1200 feet in height. 
The soil as far as observed was found to be poor, being a 
reddish clay immixed with vegetable matter, and unfit for any 
general cultivation excepting Gambier and Pepper. The produc¬ 
tion of these articles of commerce we were informed has been 
considerably curtailed, owing to the plants and vines being worn 
out in the older cultivated districts; and the Chinese who are the 
cultivators have consequently in great numbers abandoned the soil 
for fresh locations in Battam and Johore, 
