afterward planted that Java now furnishes about half the
world's supply of quinine, which is extracted from the bark of the tree.

Tobacco is extensively grown in Java, but one does not hear much about
it, because a great deal of it is sold as "Sumatra" leaf. Tea-growing
has become a great industry in Java and the tea in quality is as fine
as that grown in China. Women and girls are the pickers. They work with
head and arms bare, each wearing a loose gown resembling a Japanese
kimona without sleeves. As fast as they are picked the leaves are piled
on squares of white cloth. When the cloth contains enough to make a
bundle of good size the picker carries it on her head to the factory,
where the leaves are first wilted, rolled into compact form and then
dried on great stone floors that are shielded from the sun. The hundreds
of pickers with their brightly colored gowns and white bundles, form a
wonderful kaleidoscope picture.

In recent years petroleum, long known to the natives, has added much to
the wealth of Java. The thrifty Hollander studied well-drilling in
Pennsylvania and California; then he put his training to work on the
Javanese oil-fields. As a result Java is beginning to supply not only
the East Indies, but also Japan with coal-oil.

Years ago travellers used to tell marvellous stories about a certain
poison valley of Java in the centre of which stood an upas-tree. The
tree itself was famed for the deadly effects of its poisonous
exhalations, which killed man, beast, or bird that came near it. These
stories proved to be mere fabrications. They grew out of the fact that
near by was a valley from which arose at times carbonic-acid gas in
sufficient quantity to kill small animals running over certain low
places. But the upas played no part, though the juice of the tree is
poisonous.

Batavia is the capital of the Dutch East Indies. It is on low, flat
land, half a dozen miles from the artificial harbor which has not long
been finished; for the old port had but little protection from stormy
seas and high winds. The swampy land on which the city is built has been
drained by canals. Excepting the business streets, the city is almost
hidden by the gardens with their profusion of plants. It is the
Amsterdam of the Old World; and one will find as good wares in Batavia
as in Holland. During the eruption of Krakatoa, Batavia was buried deep
in dust and ragged cinders of lava. More than twenty thousand dead were
under