The country is dotted over with large and small lakes, generally salt or alkaline, and intersected by streams.

The terrain around Kranji was primarily mangrove swamps and tropical forest intersected by streams and inlets.

Separated from the river by a narrow raised causeway, the fields consisted of low, but fertile, marshes intersected by streams and ditches where the chief crops were carrots, melons, lavender (all the way up to Lavender Hill) and the famous 'Battersea Bunches' of asparagus.