PROBOLINGO FISHING BOAT. THE Probolingo boats of this class carry the native name of "sukung,” and are in the hull much like those of the Sulu Archipelago up to the north, whilst the sail is quite different to those at Pekalongan, which are of thicker fibre and rolled up when furled, whereas this description of craft is more of the Fiji type, with the mast very differently placed, and much lighter in substance, the lower end of the yard going into a bucket forward and, resting in that, takes the weight off the mast. Another striking feature is the different arrangement of the outrigger supports, the one forward being low down and that aft curving up pronouncedly, to allow the wash to pass under freely when the vessel is at her high speed. This is the same on both sides, as this boat is a double outrigger. The ornamentation along the gunwale gives a very picturesque appearance, and the anchor, Heathen Chinee pattern, is very eastern. Coming away from Celebes to visit Java, the island of Madoera is left on the starboard hand to arrive at Soerabaje. So travelling we pass some fishing craft which have come out of the bight from Probolingo, on the north side of the island and near the eastern extremity. This is the grandest approach to Java, and the two live volcanoes, "Semeroe," 3,670 ft., and "Bromo," 2,100 ft., partly enveloped in cloud vapour and smoke gradually loom and finally tower over us. This is in reality a Terra del Fuego, with nineteen live volcanoes in the island. With so many vents for volcanic fury it seems extraordinary that such a submarine outburst should have occurred at Krakatoa in the Straits of Sunma in 1883. None of the nineteen were in eruption when we were there, only fuming with a suggestion that they had "banked" fires. When visiting the celebrated botanical gardens at Buitenzorg, famed for its epidendrons amongst other wonders, we frequently looked up at the volcano “Salak” just PROBOLINGO FISHING BOAT 177 over our heads, as we heard during the morning that he had been rather restless for the last few days, and the temperature of the water in the wells had risen. The white hats of the crew were very like Chinese head protectors. The Chinese coolies are found pretty well everywhere, especially in recently developed countries, but as a sea-going people they have done nothing to be compared with roving Malays and pirates of that ilk. Perhaps they would object to the title of pirates; but armed yachtsmen who cruise about helping themselves to anything they may fancy, on sea or shore, such were and still are the sea gipsies or Bajaus of North-East Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago.. MACASSAR CRAFT. THESE Vessels should be included in the ark or house-boat class, as we live in an age of classification. Celebes runs from the Equator oo. in a long slip of an island down to 5o south, lying to the eastward of the lower part of Borneo, so that it is rather out of the way and not much frequented by Europeans, save a few Dutchmen who come up from Java. The craft here are the most villagey looking vessels we know; it would have been very interesting to have gone over the establishment to see how they were arranged. The large parallelogrammic sail with the wide band of colour running through it is quite Malay in form and character, so also the outside rudder and inverted beak stern; the Derrick masts and heavy mast-head belong to the same school. The houses represent the local peculiarity, and very odd they are, the only reason one can give to account for all the thatching resorted to is that in these equatorial latitudes the smaller boats adopted the same protection against the sun's perpendicular rays, and as it is so successful in the smaller essays the Celebes people thought they would show the world what they could do in their own waters. The boat on the right in this illustration is a two-master with Probolingo |