Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

TOPOGRAPHY OF JAVA. 185west of the roadstead, whicli already possessed a naval arsenal ; but after muchdiscussion, the engineers at last decided in favour of the Tanjong Prick Point, whichis distant only 6 miles to the north-east of the old town. Here the land, somewhatmore elevated than the neighbouring coast, projects seawards towards a line ofupheaved beds, which are continued in the direction of the east. Two immensestone jetties, 2,140 and 1,960 yards long respectively, now project from this point,curving round at their northern extremity so as to leave for shipping an entranceof about 500 feet.The space thus enclosed comprises nearly 500 acres, and affordsgood anchorage for the largest vessels.Repairing basins, graving and dry docks,and building yards complete the harbour works, which are connected with the restof the city by a road, a railway, and a canal crossing the intervening marshyplain.The two large towns of Tawjcrang and Bikasi to the east, both inhabited byChinese, may be regarded as direct dependencies of Batavia. Bekasi is evenconnected by rail with the capital, of which it forms a suburban retreat ; but nota single descendant is now to be found of the Dutch Boers, who settled in thedistrict about the middle of the eighteenth century. In Tangerang and neighbourhoodsome 40,000 or 50,000 peasants are occupied during the " dead season "in plaiting hats, mats and boxes of bamboo fibre, which are bought up by Chinegetraders for the market of Paris.In 1887, the district of TjUongok alone exportedabout 1,200,000 hats, valued at nearly £f^0,000.Farther south the advanced spurs of the Gede volcano are resorted to by mostof the Europeans, who can here breathe a pure and invigorating atmosphere. In1774, Buifenzorg, that is " Sans Souci," was chosen as the site of an official healthresort,and this place has by successive enlargements become a vast residence, nowusually occupied by the Governor-Generals of the Dutch East Indies. Lying 880feet above the sea, on a wooded slope between the Liwong and Dani river valleys,Buitenzorg commands a superb prospect of the surrounding forest-clad gloomygorges and undulating heights rising in one direction towards Mount Salak, inanother towards Gede. Xowhere else in Java is the indigenous vegetation moreexuberant or more varied than here, and no botanic garden in the world is richer orbetter organised than that of Buitenzorg, whose magnificent avenues wind roundabout the government palace. Here are cultivated no less than 9, -'300 differentspecies of plants.But Buitenzorg is not sufficiently elevated to be regarded as a sanitarium.Hence invalids and convalescents usually prefer the station of SuHlang-Lnya, whichstands at an altitude of 3,560 feet on the northern slope of Gede, near the vastnursery grounds of Tjibodas. This is said to be the most salubrious spot in thewhole of west Java, and hundreds of soldiers stricken down during the Atjehcampaigns have here recovered their health.South of Buitenzorg the railway, after crossing the main insular watei'-parting,and leaving to the south thinly peopled districts sloping down to Wijnkoops Bai/,and the port of Plahuan-Ratu, passes eastwards by the important stations ofStikabumi Tjanjur, into the vast basin of the Tarum. Here is the port of Tjikao,