LABUAN, or Labuhan, an island of the East Indian Archipelago, which has been a British possession since 1846. It lies about 6 miles off the north-west coast of Borneo, opposite the northern end of the great bay of Brunei. Rudely triangular in shape, it measures about 7 miles across the base, and has a length of 11 miles from north to south. The general flatness of the surface is broken by a number of undulating hills, none of which, however, exceed 90 feet in height. At the time of the first settlement most of the ground was occupied by virgin forest, in which camphor trees of noble proportions were conspicuous; but nearly the whole of this has been destroyed either by human effort or by jungle fires. The soil is very poor, except in the valleys of the larger streams. Of the total area, estimated at over 45 square miles, or 29,350 acres, 21,000 acres are supposed to be capable of cultivation; but of this not more than 1500 acres are sown with rice, the only crop attempted on a large scale in the island. The cocoa-nut flourishes to no small profit on the little island of Daat; and the African oil palm promises well. At the time of its occupation a brilliant future was prophesied for Labuan: its harbour was to make it a second Singapore, and its coal beds were to prove an unfailing source of wealth. Such anticipations are far from having been realized. Though the workable coal in the island has been estimated at no less than 400,000,000 tons, the mines have commercially proved an utter failure. The Scottish Oriental Coal Company— the fourth of its kind—came to an untimely end in 1880; from 1868 it had raised 53,741 tons of clean coal, each ton costing about 72s. and selling for not more than 25s. or 30s. The want of machinery strong enough to keep the workings dry is ...