The ocean / By P. H. Gosse.

  • Gosse, Philip Henry, 1810-1888.
Date:
[pref. 1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ocean / By P. H. Gosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    343/388 (page 321)
    The eye seeks in vain for some variation, some break in the vast forest; all is rich massy foliage, like enormous heaps of green velvet. The solemn silence that prevails, joined with this gorgeous uniformity, creates an oppressive feeling of awe and loneliness. And when the dews of evening descend, and the gentle breeze blows off the land, it comes loaded with what have been described as spicy odours, but which are, in sober reality, but the sickly sweats produced by immense masses of vegetation in de- composition. They bear, in fact, the pestilence upon their wings. But while this is the general character of the great islands, there are exceptions. Java, settled by the Dutch, contrasts with Sumatra and Borneo; the gloom of the forest is enlivened here and there by verdant fields and lawns, while the white villas of the Europeans chequer the hills, and give a peace- ful and inviting air to the landscape. The smaller isles are said to be exquisitely lovely. “ The sea near Batavia is covered with innumer- able little islets, all of which are clothed with lux- uriant vegetation. Native prahus, with their yellow mat-sails, are occasionally seen to shoot from be- hind one of them, to be shielded from view imme- diately afterwards by the green foliage of another ; and over the tops of the trees may often be descried the white sails of some stately ship, threading the mazes of this little archipelago. One group, appro- priately named the Thousand Isles, has never yet been explored, and its intricacies afford concealment to petty pirates who prey upon the small prahus and