I stayed there a few days, but found that almost all the ground in the vicinity not underwater was cultivated, and that the only forest was in swamps which were now inaccessible.

The only bird new to me which I obtained at Lorok was the fine long-tailed parroquet (Palaeornis longicauda).

The people here assured me that the country was just the same as this for a very long way--more than a week's journey, and they seemed hardly to have any conception of an elevated forest-clad country, so that I began to think it would be useless going on, as the time at my disposal was too short to make it worth my while to spend much more of it in moving about.

At length, however, I found a man who knew the country, and was more intelligent; and he at once told me that if I wanted forest I must go to the district of Rembang, which I found on inquiry was about twenty-five or thirty miles off.
The road is divided into regular stages of ten or twelve miles each, and, without sending on in advance to have coolies ready, only this distance can be travelled in a day.

At each station there are houses for the accommodation of passengers, with cooking-house and stables, and six or eight men always on guard.