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. We ate some of the divers that evening
and found them first-class food, tasting much like goose. We later in
the day disturbed a whole colony of these water-birds feeding on the
carcase of a large stag in the river, and the smell was very strong
for some distance. I did not attempt to shoot any more mock geese
till we had put a good many miles between ourselves and the dead
stag. We passed several canoes slowly wending their way to the eaves,
the people taking it easy and camping on the banks and fishing. They
dried the fish on the roofs of their thatched canoes. Some of these
people had very curious rattan pyramid-shaped hats gaily ornamented
with strips of bright-coloured cloth.
Toward evening the river got exceedingly narrow, and fallen trees
obstructed our way, so that we had sometimes to lie flat on our backs
to pass under them, and at other times we had to get out while our
canoe was hauled over the mud at the side.
Just before we reached our destination for the night, we came to a
spot where the bank was hung with bits of coloured cloth and calico
fastened to sticks, I also noticed some bananas and dried fish tied to
the sticks. This signified that there was a native burial ground close
by, and all the canoes were stopped, the scullers putting their paddles
down, while the Hadji and all his men proceeded to wash their faces
in the river. This they did to ensure success in their nest-collecting.
We stayed the night in one of two raised half-thatched huts used only
by the natives in the collecting seasons, a ladder from the river
leading into them. It was almost dark when we arrived, and hardly were
we under shelter when rain came down in torrents. It poured all night,
and when we started off on foot at sunrise the next morning we found
the track in the forest a regular quagmire; in places we waded through
mud up to our knees. As we scrambled and floundered through the mud
at our best pace we heard a great crashing noise just in front of us,
and the air resounded with cries of "Gajah, gajah!" (elephant). I was
just in time to see a large elephant tear by. It literally seemed to
fly, and knocked down small trees as if they were grass. It seemed
greatly frightened, and made a sort of coughing noise. It went by so
quickly that I was unable to see whether it had tusks or not.
After about three hours' hard tramping, I caught sight of a high
mass of white limestone gleaming through the trees. It made a pretty
picture in the early morning, the white rock peeping out of luxuriant
creepers and foliage. It rises very abruptly from the surrounding
forest, and at a distance looked quite inaccessible to a climber.
We waded through a stream of clear water, washing the horrible forest
mud from off us, and soon found ourselves in a most picturesque
village at the very base of the rock. We disturbed quite a crowd of
native girls bathing in a spring, and they seemed very much alarmed
and surprised at seeing two Europeans suddenly turn the corner. Out
of season I don't believe any one lives in this village except some
watchers at the mouths of the eaves to guard against thieves.
