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National Geographic : 1920 Jan
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE A CHINESE COOLIE MENDING TIIE HARNESS OF IIS BUFFALO CAaT In the meantime the buffalo is taking his daily noonday bath and siesta in a near-by mud-hole. banyan, and Hcrvca bra:ilicnsis, enor mously popular in Malaya. Liberian coffee thrived in the shade of the hcr'ca or under the protection of vast coco-palm groves; ten-foot pepper vines climbed thickly up the trunks of small trees, clumps of tall areca palms waved their graceful fronds high in the air, and dense forests of teakwood, planted in even rows, overhung and shaded the road. Other things without end grew in like profusion, and all helped prove what the planter enthusiasts had told of the is land's future. With rich alluvial soil, unfailing rainfall, and tremendous nat ural resources, only the lack of labor and the deterrent influence of warring tribes has held Sumatra practically at a standstill while its sister island, Java, has flourished so greatly. Sumatra's exploitation has been carried on very slowly and cautiously, it is true, but without the aid of the severe though wonderfully beneficial methods of the Java culture system; and before the close of many years its economic development and wealth will astonish even those fa miliar with the statistics of Java. We reached Medan early in the after noon, and the next morning ran down ten miles to the end of the road and took the Deli railway for two or three miles to the port of Belawan, in the mangrove swamps. A wearying two-hour struggle ensued in the moist, oppressive heat of the low coast-a contest against heavy odds in the shape of booms that were too short, planks that were too weak, spaces too narrow, and stanchions that interfered, and all the other things that make a nightmare of loading and unloading motor cars on ships unprepared to handle them. But we won in the end, with the help of a placid Dutch officer, who showed no anxiety over the disruption I was causing the company's sailing schedule; and when the car was at last on board, the Runmphius dropped down the river to the Straits, swung southeast for Singa pore, and shortly sunk the low east coast of Sumatra in the haze of late afternoon. 102
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