The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither | Page 7

storm, as many people suppose, from a vague association of the word
"typhoon," but a steady wind blowing, in the case of the Malay
Peninsula, for six months from the north-east, bringing down the
Chinamen in their junks, and for six months from the southwest,
bringing traders from Arabia and India. The climate is the pleasantest
during the north-east monsoon, which lasts from October to April. It is
during the south-west monsoon that the heavier rains, accompanied by
electrical disturbances, occur. The central mountain range protects the

Peninsula alternately from both monsoons, the high Sumatran
mountains protecting its west side from the south-west winds. The east
side is exposed for six months to a modified north-east monsoon.
Everywhere else throughout the almost changeless year, steadily
alternating land and sea breezes with gentle variable winds and calms
prevail, interrupted occasionally on the west coast during the "summer"
by squalls from the south-west, which last for one or two hours, and are
known as "Sumatrans." Hurricanes and earthquakes are unknown.
Drenching dews fall on clear nights. [*This word is recognized as a
corruption by Portuguese and British tongues of the Arabic word
"musim," "season."]
The Peninsula is a gorgeous tropic land, and, with its bounteous rainfall
and sunshine, brings forth many of the most highly prized productions
of the tropics, with some that are peculiar to itself. Its botany is as yet
very imperfectly known. Some of its forest trees are very valuable as
timber, and others produce hard-veined woods which take a high polish.
Rattans, Malacca canes, and gutta are well known as among its forest
products; gutta, with its extensive economical uses, having been used
only for Malay horsewhips and knife-handles previous to 1843. The
wild nutmeg is indigenous, and the nutmeg of commerce and the clove
have been introduced and thrive. Pepper and some other spices flourish,
and the soil with but a little cultivation produces rice wet and dry,
tapioca, gambier, sugar-cane, coffee, yams, sweet potatoes, cocoa, sago,
cotton, tea, cinchona, india rubber, and indigo. Still it is doubtful
whether a soil can be called fertile which is incapable of producing the
best kinds of cereals. European vegetables are on the whole a dismal
failure. Conservatism in diet must be given up by Europeans; the yam,
edible arum, and sweet potato must take the place of the "Irish potato,"
and water-melons and cucumbers that of our peas, beans, artichokes,
cabbages, and broccoli. The Chinese raise coarse radishes and lettuce,
and possibly the higher grounds may some day be turned into market
gardens. The fruits, however, are innumerable, as well as wholesome
and delicious. Among them the durion is the most esteemed by the
natives, and the mangosteen by Europeans.
The fauna of the Peninsula is most remarkable and abundant; indeed,

much of its forest-covered interior is inhabited by wild beasts alone,
and gigantic pachyderms, looking like monsters of an earlier age, roam
unmolested over vast tracts of country. Among this thick-skinned
family are the elephant, the one-horned rhinoceros, the Malayan tapir,
and the wild hog; the last held in abomination by the Malays, but
constituting the chief animal food of some of the wild tribes.
A small bear with a wistful face represents the Plantigrade family. The
Quadrumana are very numerous. There are nine monkeys, one, if not
two apes, and a lemur or sloth, which screens its eyes from the light.
Of the Digitigrada there are the otter or water-dog, the musang and
climbing musang, the civet cat, the royal tiger, the spotted black tiger,
in whose glossy raven-black coat the characteristic markings are seen
in certain lights; the tiger cat, the leopard, the Java cat, and four or five
others. Many of these feline animals abound.
Among the ruminants are four species of deer, two smaller than a hare,
and one as large as an elk; a wild goat similar to the Sumatran antelope;
the domestic goat, a mean little beast; the buffalo, a great, nearly
hairless, gray or pink beast, bigger than the buffalo of China and India;
a short-legged domestic ox, and two wild oxen or bisons, which are
rare.
The bat family is not numerous. The vampire flies high, in great flocks,
and is very destructive to fruit. This frugiverous bat, known popularly
as the "flying fox," is a very interesting-looking animal, and is actually
eaten by the people of Ternate. At the height of the fruit season,
thousands of these creatures cross from Sumatra to the mainland, a
distance never less than forty miles. Their strength of wing is enormous.
I saw one captured in the steamer Nevada, forty-five miles from the
Navigators, with wings measuring, when extended, nearly five feet
across. These are formed of a jet black membrane, and have a highly
polished claw at the extremity of each. The feet consist