Though the Malay is largely occupied in agriculture, yet he has taken only a small share in the most important of recent movements, the artificial cultivation of rubber. All along the railway, outside the rice swamps, we find our view shut in by the tall trees of the forest. Here is a glimpse where the forest 35 has been thinned out a little, and here again is a corner 36 of the jungle showing the dense growth of fern and creeper. The constant rainfall and high temperature which give us the jungle have been found to be well suited to the growth of the Brazilian rubber tree. So here and there from the train we catch sight of a great clearing, with perhaps the young rubber trees growing 37 amid the roots and fallen trunks of the older forest. Or 38 again we pass a plantation in a more advanced stage; and if we pay the planter a visit we may see the coolies tapping the trees by slicing the bark, and collecting the milky latex 39 which when coagulated and smoked becomes rubber as we know it. The planter is English, perhaps from Ceylon; the coolies who 40 cluster round the bungalow to receive their pay are probably Tamils from India, since the Malay, though useful in the rough work of clearing to which he is accustomed, does not take readily to the steady work of cultivation. Clearing, planting and growing the trees is a slow process, and the progress of Malaya would have been far from rapid if it had been based on agriculture alone. The money needed for roads and railways came from another source. When we intervened, we found the Chinese coolie already in occupation, and a considerable traffic in Chinese-owned vessels along the coast to Singapore. The cause of this traffic was tin. Tin ore is everywhere in the Peninsula, though it is mined chiefly in the alluvial areas at the foot of the hills. Some of the mining is still very primitive and is carried on by groups of Chinese who work with little capital but manage to make a profit none the less. But in many places modern machinery has been introduced; the steam pump has replaced the chain and bucket of the Chinese, while hydraulic sluicing and other up-to-date methods of mining are becoming 41 common. We often come on a whole valley, looking like a huge 42 quarry, turned upside down and desolated in the search for tin. Everywhere we notice the busy Chinese coolie, in his curious sun hat, and in the distance we may catch sight of the barracks where he lives. The ore is dug out and washed, and then for the most part sent to Singapore to be smelted and reduced to the shape in which it reaches our own country. Nearly half the world’s supply of tin comes from this narrow strip of country; and we may say that Malaya has been built up on tin, though now rubber is rapidly overtaking it in value. The two together constitute