Pulo Penang
Artist: Austin; Engraver: Lacey
Publisher: Fisher, Son & Co., London

100+ years old art print .ebay.. in excellent condition .ebay.. reverse side is blank !

Size: Size of the image: 4 1/2 x 7 1/4, overall print size: 8 x 10 1/2 inches (1 inch = 2,54 cm)
Condition: Excellent condition. Printed on heavier wove paper.

From the original description:
Prince Of Wales' Island, or Pulo-Penang, is situated on the western Malayan Coast, at the head of the Malacca Straits, the northern extremity of the Island of Sumatra being distant directly westwards about 300 miles. The following impressions of the climate of the Island are derived from a two years' service there, and two subsequent visits while proceeding to and from China.

The island is about 16 miles in length and 8 miles in breadth, and runs nearly parallel with, the Malayan Coast, from which it is separated by a channel from 3 to 6 miles in width, with one or two intervening small islands. A chain of hills, which at one point attains to a height of 2,800 feet, traverses its entire length. The plain on the eastern or Malayan side of these hills affords the site for the town of Penang (George Town) and the more important villages and inhabited districts, while the hills encroach almost upon the western shore, so that it is there inhabited only by a small population of fishermen. These hills are wholly covered with a dense jungle, composed of lofty exogens, great varieties of palms, tree ferns and shrubs and climbing ferns, orchids and other innumerable parasites and creepers, except such eminences as have been chosen as sites for Government houses and merchants' bungalows, or where the Chinese squatter, who has patiently cleared it to grow the plantain, pineapple or nutmeg. The plain, as seen from the bill, is studded here and there with cocoa nut plantations, paddy fields, and villages under the shade of the invariable cocoa-nut and areca nut palms, and the most eastward point on the coast is the site of the town and Fort of Penang. The territory on the mainland presents somewhat similar features. A belt of cocoa-nut palms skirts the greater part of leeley. its coast, beyond which are usually seen considerable water expanses which represent paddy fields, sugar-cane estates, cocoa-nut plantations or stretches of uncleared jungle, with the Malayan range of mountains in the background, and Quedah Peak about 5,000 feet high and 20 miles northward shutting in the country in that direction; 36 miles in length and from 6 to 10 miles in depth of this district, is Province Wellesley and is English territory. European planters who, on elephant, rhinoceros or taper hunting expeditions, have penetrated towards the base of these hills, have invariably suffered from malarious fever. Mosquitoes in this territory are such a pest, both to men and animals, that fires are lit to windward of resting cattle at night, and where the planters do not possess netted rooms, charcoal is burned under the table at dinner, the rising smoke being considered less unpleasant than the vicious attacks of these animals. The Malayan coast is usually low and flat, and for considerable distances at the mouths of small rivers, the mangrove grows in the slimy mud, which at ebb tide may be seen to extend for miles seawards. A great part of the narrow straits between Penang and the mainland, more especially in the neighbourhood of a bold island called Pulo-Kra, is uncovered by water at ebb tide.

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