s, the climate is positively helpful. Of course the
mountain districts are preferable to the plains, but in the ordinary
routes traversed by travellers there are no conditions to be encountered
which are adverse to persons in the enjoyment of ordinary health.
Buitenzorg (close to Batavia), the summer residence of the
Governor-General, a place which is to Dutch India what Simla is to
British India, is especially healthy, being some seven hundred feet
above sea-level. Tosari, again, in the eastern part of the island, is a
recognized sanatorium. It has a capital hotel, and lies at an elevation
of six thousand feet above sea-level. This latter place is easily
reached in one day from Soerabaia; and close by is Mount Bromo, one of
the most active volcanoes in Java, and one which is always covered with
smoke. A three-mile walk will give the visitor an opportunity of seeing
the boiling crater--a magnificent spectacle. Mount S'meroe, the highest
mountain in Java (12,000 feet), is also in the neighbourhood.

The best time to travel is the dry season, April to November, when the
nights are cooler and the weather brighter; and, of course, in
travelling by carriage, arrangements should be made to avoid proceeding
during the hottest part of the day as much as possible.

The Dutch are nothing if they are not methodical, and in order to travel
in Java certain formalities, which at first sight appear somewhat
formidable, but which are really matters of form, have to be gone
through. Any person intending to remain in the island for more than
twenty-four hours must register his name with the police, and give them
particulars of his age, birthplace, profession, last place of residence,
the ship in which he arrived, and the name of its captain. He thereupon
receives a document entitled _Toetlakings-kaart_ ("admission ticket"),
which states that the person so named and described arrived at a certain
date, "with the intention of residing in Netherlands India," and that
he is permitted, "by authority of the ordinance of March 12, 1872, to
reside in any of the chief harbours or ports open for general trade, and
also at Buitenzorg." It is signed by the Assistant-Resident of Batavia.
This "admission-ticket" is not sufficient to authorize the new arrival
to travel in the interior. For this purpose a second and still more
imposing document must be obtained. This is an extract from the register
of "decisions" of the Governor-General, and is to the e