194 WALLACE ON BORNEO. [Nov. 10, 1856. 



now drawing near, I determined to return to Sarawak, by crossing 

 the country between the head waters of the Sadong and Sarawak 

 rivers ; and as I am not aware of any account of this district or of 

 its inhabitants having been published, or indeed of the whole of it 

 having been previously visited by any European, I beg leave to 

 submit my notes to the Eoyal Geographical Society. 



The whole of the lower part of the Sadong valley is a forest plain, 

 with scarcely a single spot of dry ground, except where a few isolated 

 hills rise abruptly from it. It is a vast morass of a black vegetable 

 mud, resting on a yellow clay. The surface is as nearly as possible 

 on a level with the sea at high water. In such a country it may be 

 supposed that the lower part of the river is monotonous enough. 

 The banks are cultivated as, paddy fields by the Dyaks and Malays ; 

 and their little thatch huts alone break the unpicturesque line of 

 muddy banks, crowned with tall grasses and sedges, and backed by 

 the tops of the forest trees behind the cultivated ground. It took 

 me a day and a half from the mines to reach the Malay village of 

 Gudong, where I stayed an hour to make some purchases of fruit 

 and provisions, and called upon the Datu Bandar, or Malay governor 

 of the place. His house was very spacious, but very dirty both out- 

 side and in. He was particular in his inquiries about the coal, the 

 use of which the natives cannot realize. They are besides quite 

 puzzled at the extensive and costly preparations made for work- 

 ing it. At the village of Jahi I found the stream so swift on account 

 of a slight flood, that my heavy boat could make no way against 

 it, and I was obliged to remain a day to obtain a smaller one, and 

 fresh men to take me up to the first village of Hill Dyaks. 



I succeeded here in meeting with a Malay boy, named Bujon, 

 who wanted to return to Sarawak, and agreed to accompany me, and 

 who, as he knew the language of the Sadong Dyaks, having traded 

 among them, was a very important acquisition. Leaving Jahi in a 

 very small open boat, we proceeded more pleasantly, and in a few 

 hours got beyond the cultivated country to where the virgin forests 

 come down to the water's edge. At night we had some difficulty in 

 finding dry ground to sleep on, the river's banks being generally 

 flooded. Early in the morning we reached Empugnan, a small 

 Malay village, situate at the foot of a mountain of the same name, 

 which had been visible from the mouth of the Simunjon river, and 

 is apparently isolated. In the dry season the tide reaches this 

 place. From here the vegetation becomes much finer. Large trees 

 stretch out their arms across the stream, and the high earthy banks 

 are clothed with ferns and scitamineous plants. 



