ired to carry all extra baggage. As this kind of travelling world
not suit my means, I determined on making only a short journey to
the district at the foot of Mount Arjuna, where I was told there were
extensive forests, and where I hoped to be able to make some good
collections. The country for many miles behind Sourabaya is perfectly
flat and everywhere cultivated; being a delta or alluvial plain, watered
by many branching streams. Immediately around the town the evident signs
of wealth and of an industrious population were very pleasing; but as
we went on, the constant succession of open fields skirted by rows of
bamboos, with here and there the white buildings and a tall chimney of
a sugar-mill, became monotonous. The roads run in straight lines
for several miles at a stretch, and are bordered by rows of dusty
tamarind-trees. At each mile there are little guardhouses, where a
policeman is stationed; and there is a wooden gong, which by means of
concerted signals may be made to convey information over the country
with great rapidity. About every six or seven miles is the post-house,
where the horses are changed as quickly as were those of the mail in the
old coaching days in England.

I stopped at Modjokerto, a small town about forty miles south of
Sourabaya, and the nearest point on the high road to the district
I wished to visit. I had a letter of introduction to Mr. Ball, an
Englishman, long resident in Java and married to a Dutch lady; and he
kindly invited me to stay with him until I could fix on a place to suit
me. A Dutch Assistant Resident as well as a Regent or native Javanese
prince lived here. The town was neat, and had a nice open grassy space
like a village green, on which stood a magnificent fig-tree (allied to
the Banyan of India, but more lofty), under whose shade a kind of market
is continually held, and where the inhabitants meet together to lounge
and chat. The day after my arrival, Mr. Ball drove me over to the
village of Modjo-agong, where he was building a house and premises
for the tobacco trade, which is carried on here by a system of native
cultivation and advance purchase, somewhat similar to the indigo trade
in British India. On our way we stayed to look at a fragment of the
ruins of the ancient city of Modjo-pahit, consisting of two lofty brick
masses, apparently the sides of a gateway. The extreme perfection and
beauty of the brickwork astonished me. The bricks are exceedingly fine
and ha