But in the shady forest it was delightful,
gliding along to the music of the even dip of the paddles.
The most striking feature about the forest on this Menungal River
was the extraordinary growth of a species of banyan trees (FICUS
sp.). I have seen many curious stilted trees of this FICUS family in
various tropical countries I have visited, but these I think were more
curious than any I had ever seen. One hardly knew where they began and
where they ended, for they all seemed joined together, and roots and
branches seemed one and the same thing. It was the acme of vegetable
confusion. Even the river could not stop their progress, and we were
constantly gliding between their roots and branches. The growth of
ferns, orchids and parasites on the branches and roots of these trees
was luxuriant to a degree and formed veritable hanging gardens.
On these Bornean rivers one is constantly seeing pigs, crocodiles and
monkeys, but I noticed on this river an abundance of a monkey which
one seldom sees on the large Kinabatangan River. I refer to the very
curious proboscis or long-nosed monkey (NASALIS LARVATUS). These
animals often sat still overhead and stared down at us in the most
contemptuous and indifferent manner, and they looked so human and yet
so comical with their enormous red noses that I found myself laughing
aloud, our scullers doing the same, till the monkeys actually grinned
with indignation. They axe large monkeys with long tails, and are
beautifully marked with various shades of grey and brown, and their
large, fleshy, red noses give them an extraordinary appearance.
One of them did a performance that astonished me. We saw a group of
them on a branch over the river about forty yards ahead of us, when
one of them jumped into the middle of the river and coolly swam to a
hanging creeper up which it climbed, none the worse for its voluntary
bath. This was the only time that I had ever seen a monkey swim, but
the natives assured me that these monkeys are very good swimmers. It
struck me as being a very risky performance, as this river was full
of crocodiles.
I saw on this river a wonderful orchid growing on large trees. This
was a GRAMMATOPHYLLUM with bulbs some times over eight feet in
length. The length of the name is certainly suitable for so large
an orchid. I saw plenty of water-birds, including white egrets and
a long-necked diver which is called the "snake-bird," owing to its
long neck projecting lout of the water and thus greatly resembling a
snake. I shot several of each kind of bird, plucking the fine plumes
from the backs of the egrets.
