from the nature of the merchandise
piled upon the wharf for shipment, consisting of tapioca, cocoanut oil,
gambia, tin, indigo, tiger skins, coral, gutta-percha, hides, gums, and
camphor, some of which our ship was destined to take westward. The tin,
in heavy pigs, was especially noticeable as to weight and quantity.

The surface of the island is undulating and densely wooded; in fact
consists of a multitude of small hills not exceeding three or four
hundred feet in height, while the jungle comes down close to the shore.
The great enemy which the natives have to contend against is wild
beasts,--tigers proving very fatal all the year round. There is no
winter, summer, or autumn here, but a perpetual spring, with a
temperature almost unvarying; new leaves always swelling from the buds,
flowers always in bloom, the sun rising and setting within five minutes
of six o'clock during the entire year. Singapore is considered to be a
very healthy place, and gets a soft breeze most of the day from across
the Bay of Bengal, laden with fragrant sweetness from the spice-bearing
fields of Ceylon, while upon its own soil every flower and blossom known
to the Orient affords beauty to the eye and delight to the senses. The
trees here would have seemed enormous had we not so lately come from
California. One observes the great abundance of the rattan-palm, which
forms picturesque groups of green foliage quite distinctive from the
other surroundings. It seemed rather enervating with the thermometer at
90 deg. in the shade, these December days, but the residents did not
complain. There are some drawbacks to be considered, as well as the
floral beauty and spice-laden air. Were this not the case it would be
celestial not terrestial. The number of dangerous snakes, scorpions,
mammoth spiders, lizards, mosquitoes, and all sorts of vermin is legion.
Naturalists come from all parts of Europe to gather and form collections
of butterflies, beetles, birds, reptiles, various insects, and shells.
The great green-winged Ornithoptera, the prince of the butterfly tribe,
abounds here. One enthusiastic naturalist, a German, boasted that he had
obtained within a month over three hundred distinct and remarkable
species of beetles, within a couple of miles of the hotel veranda where
we stood.

The steamboat landing is some three miles from the centre of Singapore,
and we drove thither drawn by a little horse which could hardly have
performed the task had the