Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/444

 428 COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF thinf^s, would afford to the lumber of the Indian Islands the same advantageous market which Eu- rope has afforded to that of America. The animal products of the Archipelago, which afford materials of commercial export, though less valuable than the vegetable, are important and in- teresting. Land animals afford hides, horns, ivory, feathers, birds' nests, stick and shell lac, bees* wax, jerk-beef, and animal sinews. The fisheries supply dry fish, fish maws and roes, sharks' fins, tripang or sea-slu^, tortoise-shell, pearls, mother-of-pearl, and cowries, with ambergris. I shall give a very rapid sketch of these, confining myself generally to what relates to their commercial character. From the great size of all the buffaloes, and of the greater number of the oxen of the Indian Islands, tlieir hides and horns are peculiarly va- luable. The immense horns of the Java buffalo have been long sent to Europe as an article of trade, and the hides both of the ox and buffalo are sent to China always in the hair, and not tanned. Bali and Lombok are the countries which have af- forded the greater number of ox hides, and the cost may be judged of from the price of the whole animal, which seldom exceeds ten or twelve sliil- lings. * In Java, where there is the greatest abun- fords plenty of oxen, the largest and best I ever saw out of
 * Bccckman, speaking of Bali, says, " The country af-