Avoid going into details of what I saw and heard and
thought of Sarawak and its ruler, confining myself chiefly to my
experiences as a naturalist in search of shells, insects, birds
and the Orangutan, and to an account of a journey through a part
of the interior seldom visited by Europeans.
The first four months of my visit were spent in various parts of
the Sarawak River, from Santubong at its mouth up to the
picturesque limestone mountains and Chinese gold-fields of Bow
and Bede. This part of the country has been so frequently
described that I shall pass it over, especially as, owing to its
being the height of the wet season, my collections were
comparatively poor and insignificant.
In March 1865 I determined to go to the coalworks which were
being opened near the Simunjon River, a small branch of the
Sadong, a river east of Sarawak and between it and the Batang-
Lupar. The Simunjon enters the Sadong River about twenty miles
up. It is very narrow and very winding, and much overshadowed by
the lofty forest, which sometimes almost meets over it. The whole
country between it and the sea is a perfectly level forest-
covered swamp, out of which rise a few isolated hills, at the
foot of one of which the works are situated.
