Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/383

] shoots to sprout from the places cut in this manner. They always choose the rainy season for performing this operation, as it succeeds with most certainty at that period. Vegetation is then so rapid in this climate, that a very short time after the incisions had been made, I saw them filled with a vast number of young buds. The inhabitants of this island are, however, in general, but little skilled in the agricultural arts.

On the 12th of, those of us who were engaged in the pursuit of natural history, obtained permission from the Governor of Sourabaya to visit the mountains of Prau, situated at the distance of about 30,000 toises west-southwest of the town.

On the following day we set out for the village of Poron, situated near the foot of the mountains. The Javanese who carried our baggage, suspended it to long poles of bamboo, each borne between the shoulders of two men.

Having proceeded about 20,000 toises, we arrived at Sonde Kari, where we dined after the Javanese fashion with the chief of the village, who had ordered a sumptuous repast to be prepared for us. It consisted of several dishes of broiled fish, and the flesh of buffaloes and horses that had been preserved, as we were told, for six months, by being cut into thin slices, and dried in the sun.