GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

ASIA.

Its water is so muddy

The Southern Ussurian District.-A translation, by Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Dalton, R.A., of M. Nadarov's article in the Izvestiya of the Russian Geographical Society has been published in the form of a Blue-book, and is of great interest in view of the increasing importance of the Amur territory. The South Ussuri district is bounded on the west by the Chinese frontier, which runs, for a distance of 298 miles, from the mouth of the river Tumen-ula to the village of Turi-Rog on the shores of Lake Khanka. From this point the boundary, still following the Chinese frontier, runs across the lake and along the Sungatcha river to the Ussuri. On the north-east the rivers Ussuri, Ulu-khe, Lafudzin, and Avvakumovka, the last flowing into Olga Bay, form the physical (not the administrative) boundary of the country. On the remaining sides the district is washed by the Sea of Japan. The area thus enclosed is about 35,000 square miles, and is, with the exception of a belt stretching from Lake Khanka and the Sungatcha river southwards to the Sikhota Alin chain, clothed with forests, and presents in general an Alpine appearance. It is watered by six rivers flowing into Lake Khanka, eighteen discharging their waters into the Sea of Japan, and the Ussuri, with its tributary the Sungatcha which drains the lake. Of all these only the two last-mentioned and the Suifun, which enters the Sea of Japan, are navigable. Lake Khanka measures 53 miles from north to south and 40 miles from east to west. that it cannot be drunk until it has stood for a long time. The lake is now navigable, but there is abundant evidence that its level is falling, and that the river Ussuri also is becoming shallower. The principal islands of the southern Ussuri district are Askold and Putiatin and the archipelago known as Russian Island, all lying in Peter the Great Bay. The harbours are numerous and excellent, the best being that of Vladivostok. This town stands on a peninsula between the Amur and Ussuri Bays. Besides the Golden Horn, on which the town is immediately situated, and which is frozen for three months in the year, three other fine bays exist in the vicinity-the Diomede, Ulysses, and Patroclus, of which the latter is covered, for not longer than two weeks, by a sheet of ice so thin that it can easily be broken through by small steamers. Means of communication are scarce. Up to 1880 there was only one road, from Turi-Rog through Kamen Rybeloff to Nikolsk, a distance of 109 miles, fit for wheeled traffic, but now the total length of such roads amounts to 696 miles. There are also roads between the villages occupied by new settlers, and a few bridle-paths. Two steamers of the Amur Steamship Company ply on Lake Khanka and the Ussuri, each making one voyage weekly from Khabarovka to Kamen Rybeloff and back, a steamer of the Telegraph Department makes occasional trips on the Ussuri and Daubi-khe, and a steamer belonging to a M. Federoff runs twice a week from Razdolny on the Suifun to the mouth of the river and back. In 1889 an expedition of engineers made some very satisfactory investigations for a railway from Vladivostok to the station of Grafskaia on the Middle Ussuri. On the projected line the gradients would not exceed eight per thousand, and the radius of the curves would in no case be less than 700 yards, while the level sections would measure 54 per cent. of the total length.

Sufficient data to judge of the climate are wanting, but, from the few observations that have been made, it would seem that the South Ussurian region may be compared with the provinces of Kursk and Samara. The mean temperature for the year is somewhere about 40° F., the thermometer rising in summer to 50° or

56°, while in winter thirty degrees of frost are registered in some parts. The average yearly rainfall is 14:57 inches at Vladivostok and 29'68 at Olga Bay. The prevailing winds in winter and autumn are the north-west and north, and in summer and spring the south-east. The peculiarity of the climate is due to these winds, which blow almost with the regularity of monsoons, and to the cold currents which flow along the coast. The south-east wind brings great atmospheric dampness, causing frequent fogs, while the north-west is equally productive of dryness.

The population consists of Russians, Chinese, Coreans, Japs, and Orothoons, and amounts to 54,600 souls. The Russians, numbering 35,000, are chiefly engaged in agriculture. The Chinese are concentrated in Vladivostok, Nikolsk, and on the coast of Expedition Bay, and are principally occupied in trade and industries. Since 1886 the immigration of this people has been partially checked by administrative regulations. The Coreans, who, after the Russians, are the most numerous race in the country, are exceedingly lazy, and at the conference at Khabarovka the Russians came to the conclusion that it would be advisable to oust them, gradually and gently, out of the South Ussuri region.

Wheat, rye, barley, and other cereals are grown, the yield naturally depending on the cultivation, in which the Chinese are far more proficient than the Russians. The crops of flax and hemp are particularly fine and of excellent quality. Roots and tobacco thrive in all parts of the country, and horticulture is gradually developing. The peasant immigrant possesses few cattle, and does not understand how to rear them. Of natural products sea-kale is the most important, and there is an insignificant trade in horns, furs, trepang, etc. Since 1874, when the Russian naval post was transferred from Nikolsk to Vladivostok, the trade of the latter has rapidly developed, and in 1885 the imports were of the value of £534,968, or nearly five times as much as in 1876. In 1880 the volunteer fleet commenced to make more or less regular voyages, bringing goods from Odessa more quickly and cheaply than they could be carried across Siberia. By the latter route the time of transit from Moscow to Vladivostok was 320 days, whereas by sea from Odessa it is only 65 days, and the cost not much more than one-fourth. To the same fleet is due the colonisation of the South Ussuri, for emigrants travelling through Siberia, wearied with privations and inconveniences, settled down on the Amur, where they found excellent soil and climatic conditions, and could not be persuaded to continue their journey to the Ussuri. Notwithstanding the liberal allotment of land given to colonists (270 acres per family), there are now distributed over this region, besides Cossacks and Coreans, some 16,000 souls. The existing settlements can accommodate as many more, and there is room for 20,000 besides. Colonisation is almost certain to take place along the Sungatcha plains to the Ussuri river, then along this river and its tributaries round to the valley of the Ulu-khe. When the level ground has been occupied, the tide of colonisation will invade the forest lands, and thence advance to the undulating country and hill slopes. (M. Nadarov's article is accompanied by a map of the region described.)

The Dutch Colonies in N.-E. Sumatra.-The Dutch colonies in Sumatra have never received due attention. Of the southern half of Sumatra we know something, owing to the writings of Wallace and Forbes, but since the days of Raffles no further addition to our knowledge with regard to north and east Sumatra has been made. Beyond some vague ideas about Acheenese pirates and an unfinished war between them and the Dutch, we may almost say it is a terra incognita for the English, except those who have passed some time on the other side of the Straits, in Singapore or Penang, and even there very little is really known about the

surprising progress of these districts; and the writer, who has been settled there for some years, ventures to think that a short account may prove interesting to some of his readers. Of Acheen itself little can yet be said. The land is rich, and has many products suited for the European market; but, until the wearisome guerilla warfare has died out, very little progress can be looked for. People are sometimes apt to judge harshly of the slowness of the Dutch forces in subjugating this country, but the unhealthiness of the climate generally, and especially the ravages of berri-berri, have, until now, done more to hinder the conquest of Acheen than the sanguinary robber bands of the Rajah of Tenom or Tunku Omar. To the south-east, however, of Acheen, and just opposite Penang, lies the Residency of the East Coast of Sumatra, and the assistant-residentship Deli, which is the subject of these notes. The so-called "Afdeeling" Deli consists of the Malay sultanates of Deli, Langkat, Serdang, and Asahan. In addition to these there are two or three smaller states, all owning the supremacy of one or other of the above. The country is of diluvial formation, and rises gradually from the coast to a height of 1500 or 2000 feet, where it is bounded by the Battak states of the mountains, which do not acknowledge any subjection to the Dutch, but have a somewhat undefined respect for some of the Malay princes of the coast, who stand themselves under the Dutch government. On the coast the inhabitants are almost all pure Malays, but the farther we recede from the coast the more the race gets mixed, till at about 1000 feet above the sea we come among the heathen Battaks, who have for the most part left their homes in the mountains to seek work or to find, amid the semi-civilisation of the Malays, more peace and rest than is ever possible among their own lawless kinsfolk. The mixed race, having received Mohammedanism from the Malays, consider themselves as belonging to the latter, and no greater insult can be offered to one of them than by calling him a Battak. An occasional conflict still takes place now and then between Malays and Battaks, when the Malays are usually politic enough to put forward the Dutch government as their champion. All the states on the coast were at one time vassals of Acheen, but gradually threw off her yoke and declared themselves independent. During the first half of this century there was a gradual reaction, and they were again falling under her power when Holland interfered, and, driving the Acheenese homewards, fixed a boundary to their influence. Since that time the coast Malays have been dropping peaceably more and more into the hands of Holland, so that now, all along the coast, and especially in Deli, the most civilised portion of the Residency, the sultans have lost almost all power, and are only used as puppets to serve the ends of the Dutch Government. Outwardly, however, they are quite independent, and as long as they behave themselves are allowed a nominal rule over their own subjects, while all Europeans, Chinese, Tamils, and other races are under Dutch jurisdiction. In many ways the Dutch theory of colonial government seems preferable to the English method, and perhaps in no case more than when applied to a suspicious native race like the Malays. They are not civilised by force, as would be done in an English colony; they are left in the enjoyment of their own customs, habits, and even laws, where the latter are not repugnant to European morals,-in fact, let alone in the fullest sense of the word, till slowly and naturally they begin of themselves to take a liking to European customs and civilisation. The principal port on the coast is Laboean (pronounced Labuan), at the mouth of the Deli River, and, 12 miles farther up, lies Medan, the capital of Deli and seat of the Resident of the East Coast of Sumatra. In Langkat the principal town is Bindgey, now also rising into importance. Serdang can hardly yet be said to have a capital, though the Sultan's residence is at Ranta Pandjang, where a controleur is also stationed.

The Residency owes its progress to the tobacco plantations which cover the whole face of the country. The culture was commenced in 1863 by a Mr. Nienhuys, and during the first ten years progressed slowly. Since 1874 or 1875 it has, however, risen, till it now reaches, by the returns of last year, a value of f. 32,500,000, or in round figures £2,700,000.

The jungle is cut in November by Malays or Battaks, and in January the Chinese coolies go into the fields. Each man receives a piece of land averaging about an acre. His first duty is to clear the land by cutting up and burning the wood, the larger stumps being left in the ground. The land must then be hoed up to a depth of 7 to 8 inches, and by the middle of April or beginning of May the young tobacco plants, which have been sown in seed-beds during March, can be planted out. Tobacco takes from sixty-five to eighty days to mature, according to the weather and the height of the plantation above the sea. The higher the plantation the longer it takes to ripen, and in some of the newer districts lying on the spurs of the mountains tobacco requires quite 100 days. During this time, however, there is always work enough for the coolies, as there is perhaps no culture which demands such incessant care as tobacco. During the growth the plants have to be hoed up twice-the first time for a couple of inches, and the second time for a foot; and though each coolie has 1000 to 15,000 plants in his field, every single plant must be examined daily to break off young shoots and destroy the caterpillars, which would otherwise completely ruin the crop. The flower, on appearing, is at once broken off, and the great object to be attained is to drive the whole strength of the plant into a limited number of leaves. When ripe, the top leaf assumes a yellowish colour, and the plants may then be cut and brought into the drying sheds, where they are hung up singly and dried till the leaf has obtained a deep-brown colour and the stem is quite dry. The leaves are then stripped from the plants and tied up in bundles to be sent down to the fermenting shed. Here the tobacco is fermented in large heaps and then sorted by the coolies according to colour, quality and length. Each sort is then separately packed in bales of 160 Dutch pounds, and shipped to Europe. A coolie raises on his field, on an average, about 7 pikols of tobacco, the pikol being equal to 125 Dutch pounds, and if he delivers his tobacco in good condition, may earn in a year 150 to 200 Mexican dollars. The profits of tobacco-planting have been up to now so great that other crops have been neglected, and only lately have a few of the planters, with an eye to the future, tried to introduce coffee and india-rubber. But in this as in everything else the cost of labour makes itself felt, and until some more satisfactory coolie immigration scheme has been arranged, Sumatra cannot compete with Brazil and Java. Sufficient rice for home consumption cannot be produced, and it has to be imported in large quantities from Rangoon and Bangkok. A few nutmegs are exported, and, from Langkat, pepper. Formerly there was a considerable trade in gold-dust in the hands of the Battaks, but they now find the process of washing it too slow, and devote their energies to jungle-cutting and shipbuilding for the planters. Battak ponies are still celebrated, and might well stand beside the best of our Shetlands at home. Large prices are however ruining the breed, as the best are all sold, and those now coming down from the mountain plateaus are much inferior to those brought down some ten years ago.

The Dutch Government makes large profits from the import and export rights in Deli, but until now their finances have been so heavily taxed by the long war in Acheen that Deli has hardly had what it might have claimed for internal requirements. Communication is still very faulty, but the Deli Maatschappij, the largest tobacco-growing concern in Sumatra, has in a very public-spirited way taken the lead in constructing a railway from the coast up to Medan, and

thence to Bindgey in Langkat, while a new line has now been commenced down the coast for a distance of 25 miles, thus bringing all the principal tobacco plantations within reach of the railroad and freeing them from depending for their communications on rivers full of snags and roads impassable in the rainy season.

The European inhabitants of the Residency consist of about 1200, who are almost all concerned in tobacco cultivation. There are also about 20,000 Chinese coolies, principally Amoy and Swatow men, while there is a floating population of a few thousands made up of all the various races of the Eastern Archipelago. Very large returns have been made in some cases by tobacco planters. Deli Maatschappij and the Arendsburg Maatschappij have on several occasions declared dividends of over 100 per cent.

The

Deli has for us one great point of interest that, till lately, its whole shipping trade, imports and exports, lay in British hands, one great Liverpool line having almost the monopoly. Last year, however, the North German Lloyd made a great effort to get in, and the competition is still being fought out at very low rates of freight, the English line depending on its old connection and knowledge of the trade, while the German line falls back on its subsidies. Freights in the meantime are less than half what they were two years ago, and the planters are profiting by the occasion. Deli has little competition to fear from outside, unless it be from British North Borneo, and it is still questionable whether the latter land be so well fitted for tobacco cultivation as Deli.

For strangers the country is not interesting. Almost the whole of the magnificent virgin forest formerly standing here has been cut away to make room for plantations, and in its place nothing but the six-foot long lalang grass comes up. Wild animals have mostly vanished with the jungle. The elephant and the rhinoceros have sullenly given place to Chinese coolies, and now, except tigers, deer, and wild pigs, there is little game left. The tigers are seldom dangerous, though they occasionally take an ox and often come prowling round the houses by night on the chance of picking up some incautious pariah dog. The smaller animals are more interesting, and include many beautiful and rare specimens, among which may be named the marble-cat, the dwarf-cat, with two other species of tiger-cat, the Bintwrong, a curious animal half bear and half polecat, the Mampelon, an amphibious animal only found here and in Borneo, the Galeopithecus, a flying loris, and many sorts of flying squirrels. The copper pheasant and bushfowl abound near the coast, and farther up the former is replaced by the argus pheasant. Small birds are not numerous, and comprise three sorts of parrakeets, several kinds of fruit-pigeons, and some ground-thrushes.

The lingua franca is of course Malay, though hardly so purely spoken as on the Malacca coast. Many of the Chinese coolies never learn it, and this complicates very much the relation between employers and employees, as it is impossible to learn all the various Chinese dialects in use among the coolies.-Contributed by T. C. Barclay, of Deli.

AFRICA.

British Consular Jurisdiction in Africa.-In order to meet the new political conditions in Africa arising from the assumption of sovereign powers by the great Chartered Companies, Her Majesty's Government has, according to the Times, invested certain British Consular officers with the duties of Commissioners, or responsible local representatives of the Crown. Thus, it is announced that Mr. H. H. Johnston, Her Majesty's Consul at Mozambique, will act as British Commissioner in Nyassa-land; General Mathews will be the Commissioner for East Africa to reside probably at Taveta (whilst Sir Charles Euan-Smith will continue to hold