Portuguese, who act as clerks and shop-keepers. There
are also Arabs and Klings of Western India, who are Mohammedans. There
are also Parsee merchants, while the grooms and washermen are mostly
Bengalees. These, with numerous Javanese sailors, as well as traders
from Celebes, Bali, and numerous other islands of the East, make up this
curiously mixed population. Then in the harbour are found men-of-war,
merchant vessels of numerous European nations, large numbers of Chinese
junks and Malay praus, with hundreds of little fishing and passenger
boats. Chinese josshouses, Indian temples, Mohammedan mosques, rise up
on either side with Christian churches. The warehouses are substantial,
the residences of the Europeans large and commodious, contrasting with
the long rows of queer little Malay and Chinese cottages, among which
are found Kling and Chinese bazaars, where everything can be bought,
from a reel of cotton to a sword or razor. Numberless vendors of
various articles throng the streets with water, fruit, vegetables, soup,
and a sort of jolly made of sea-weed. Here a man comes running along
with a pole, having a cooking apparatus on one end and a table on the
other, from which he will immediately furnish a meal of shell-fish,
vegetables, and rice at a small cost.

The island of Singapore is covered with a number of small hills, some
nearly 400 feet high, covered to the summits with forest trees. In
these forests the Chinese settlers are employed in cutting timber.
Tigers are very numerous on the island, as they have but a short
distance to cross over from the Malay peninsula, and frequently
wood-cutters are carried away by them.

I accompanied Mr Hooker several times on shore. The naturalist was
delighted with the great variety of beetles and other crawling creatures
which he was able to collect. We were struck by the enormous size of
the trees and the variety of large ferns, as well as the number of
climbing ratan palms. One day we were walking along, Mr Hooker being
in advance, when I saw him suddenly sink into the ground. I ran forward
to help my friend, who fortunately having a long pole in his hand, kept
hold of it.

"Quick, quick, Walter!" he shouted. "Help me out or I shall be
impaled."

Not without difficulty I got hold of his hand, and by main force dragged
him up. When at length on firm ground, the naturalist, after resting a
moment, pulled away a quantity of brushwood and disclosed a large p