d in great quantities in
that bay, as well as at New Guinea and other parts of the east.* At the
bottom of this fall ships occasionally take in their water without being
under the necessity of landing their casks; but such attempts are liable
to extreme hazard. A ship from England (the Elgin) attracted by the
appearance from sea of a small but beautiful cascade descending
perpendicularly from the steep cliff, that, like an immense rampart,
lines the seashore near Manna, sent a boat in order to procure fresh
water; but she was lost in the surf, and the crew drowned.

(*Footnote. The largest I have seen was brought from Tappanuli by Mr.
James Moore of Arno's Vale in the north of Ireland. It is 3 feet 3 1/2
inches in its longest diameter, and 2 feet 1 1/4 inches across. One of
the methods of taking them in deep water is by thrusting a long bamboo
between the valves as they lie open, when, by the immediate closure which
follows, they are made fast. The substance of the shell is perfectly
white, several inches thick, is worked by the natives into arm-rings, and
in the hands of our artists is found to take a polish equal to the finest
statuary marble.)

RIVERS.

No country in the world is better supplied with water than the western
coast of the island. Springs are found wherever they are sought for, and
the rivers are innumerable; but they are in general too small and rapid
for the purpose of navigation. The vicinity of the mountains to that side
of the island occasions this profusion of rivulets, and at the same time
the imperfections that attend them, by not allowing them space to
accumulate to any considerable size. On the eastern coast the distance of
the range of hills not only affords a larger scope for the course of the
rivers before they disembogue, presents a greater surface for the
receptacle of rain and vapours, and enables them to unite a greater
number of subsidiary streams, but also renders the flux more steady and
uniform by the extent of level space than where the torrent rolls more
immediately from the mountains. But it is not to be understood that on
the western side there are no large rivers. Kataun, Indrapura, Tabuyong,
and Sinkel have a claim to that title, although inferior in size to
Palembang, Jambi, Indragiri, and Siak. The latter derive also a material
advantage from the shelter given to them by the peninsula of Malacca, and
Borneo, Banca, and the other islands of the Archipelago, which, breaking