550 
FOURTH BULLETIN OF 
[1846. 
There were no habitations on this part of the island, nor did I meet with any 
inhabitants. I ran across with the boat to a small island about one mile distant 
from Laboan, and which consists of a high rock elevated about twenty feet above 
the water, covered with vegetation, and the sides overhanging, having been under¬ 
mined by the breakers. There was but one side where a boat could land, where I 
found a small cave in which were a great number of small bats. 
The principal tree here was the Pandanus flabelliformis, which is peculiar for 
the aerial roots which it sends down from its stem, at the height of from four to six 
feet from the ground, and which diverge from the trunk, and take root several feet 
from the base, and evidently is a wise provision to enable it to grow in sandy soils, 
its favorite situation, where it could not without these supports maintain itself, 
with its heavy top of leaves and fruits, against the high winds which frequently 
occur in the tropics. 
These trees are covered with fruit, and bear a nut, which, when mature, can be 
eaten. 
On a rock near the edge of the water I found a very large serpent, the palamis 
vicolor. It appeared very sluggish, was eight feet in length, and when preparing 
it I found in its abdomen a very large spotted eel, one half of which was entirely 
digested, but even the skin of the remaining part was entire, the digestion appear¬ 
ing to have proceeded from the head. 
Several smaller fish were found with the eel. These serpents inhabit salt water, 
and are provided with fangs which are poisonous, but are much smaller, in com¬ 
parison to the size of the serpent, than those of the Crotalis or Trigocephahis. 
The tail is flattened like an oar, and acts as a rudder when the snake is moving 
through the water. 
The rock of this island I found to be carbonet of lime, which I supposed to be 
the mountain series, and it is pleasing to observe that here in the tropics, in this re¬ 
mote part of the globe from the theatre of geological investigations, the same 
rocks and the same order of succession follow as in Europe, America, and other 
parts of the world, where geological investigations have been made. 
The opposite side of the island, no doubt, is much more elevated, and it is there, 
I presume, that there is an. outcropping which discovers the coal, and I have been 
informed that experiments have been made upon some obtained from this island, 
which has been found to be of an excellent quality. Mr. Lay, who visited Borneo in 
1838, described coal cropping out about two miles from the city. If it could be 
worked advantageously there, it would still, no doubt, be highly valuable, notwith¬ 
standing the land carriage of two miles to the river. 
A signal from the ship called my return, and however reluctantly I left this in¬ 
teresting place to a naturalist, still a survey of the coal field here could have been 
of no benefit to our country, as the English had about two weeks previously nego- 
eiated for the priviledge of the exclusive right of working all coal mines in Borneo 
proper. 
It is their intention of forming an English settlement on the island of Laboan, and 
will no doubt be a valuable acquisition to their already extensive possessions in 
the east. 
The soil of the island is very fertile, and is covered with large timber, and the 
locality is peculiarly healthy, having no endemic diseases, and even those epidem¬ 
ics, the scourges of most tropical countries, are unknown here. 
The privilege of working the coal here, which the English have obtained, has 
been through the influence of Mr. Brooks, an English gentleman who has privately 
purchased the government of Sarawak, and has since offered it to the English go¬ 
vernment, and which no doubt may be regarded as a prelude to the possession of 
Borneo proper. 
May, 1845.—The beautiful harbor of Turon, Cochin China, resembles some, 
what that of Rio Janeiro, Brazil; but the surrounding scenery is not so grand, nor is 
the bay so capacious or secure, as one side is formed by a peninsular promontory, 
which is low where it joins the main land, and where the town is situated ; but this 
perhaps would be but little objection for the safety of a vessel during a gale from 
that direction, as a ship would be driven to sea and off the coast. 
The mountains surrounding the harbor are lofty and very abrupt, of a primi- 
