Field Museum's Borneo Zoological Expedition of 1 956, with author Chin Phui Kong, front center, and Robert F. Inger, second from right. 

 Others are native field crew. 93623 



20 



1830 hr. We were the guests of the Assistant District 

 Officer, or ADO, Mr. Richard Lind, * for the night. 



Day 3. We had planned to go fishing in the 

 danau (a cut-off meander) in the morning, but were 

 held back by heavy rain. We decided to proceed up 

 river instead, and arrived at Pintasan at 1600 hr where 

 we stopped for the night. 



Day 4- We went up the Lokan River (a tributary 

 of the Kinabatangan) in a jong-kong (a native dugout 

 canoe), spending the morning looking for primary for- 

 est along the river. The search was fruitless. At one 

 spot we came under a low hanging branch, where a 

 2-meter python was sleeping on the branch. Bob de- 

 cided to catch the snake, and he started climbing up 

 the branch. Suddenly, I felt something heavy drop on 

 my head and the jong-kong was rocking severely. 

 Then I saw the python shoot head-long into the river, 

 and in a moment he was gone. When I came to my 

 senses, I realized that the python had hit me before 

 dropping into the boat; and the snake was just as 

 frightened as I was. We proceeded up river again in 



" Two years later, in the early 70's, Mr. Lind was appointed Chief 

 Secretary of the Sabah Government — the No. I civil servant in the 

 state. 



the afternoon and arrived at Latangan at 1730 hr. We 

 went fishing in a small stream until sundown. 



Day 5. We left Latangan for Deramakot, our 

 expedition site, in the early morning, and arrived at 

 0900 hr. Here the United Timbers Ltd. kongsi was 

 situated even higher up on the bank than the one I 

 had seen at Sukau. After unloading our gear, Bob and 

 I set off almost immediately to inspect the nearby for- 

 est. We went out again in the afternoon to survey the 

 Deramakot River, to select field stations for collecting 

 fish and frogs. Other workers were busy building our 

 camp just opposite the kongsi at the edge of a new 

 clearing. 



Days 6 to 30. Every day was a working day — 

 weather permitting — except for one rest day for every- 

 body, and one more for me when I caught cold. Zoolo- 

 gical collection and gathering of meteorological and 

 hydrological data were our main tasks at Deramakot. 

 Fishing (which usually consumed the most man- 

 power) was done mainly in the morning. Especially 

 when fishing in the big river we turned out in full 

 force. Frog collections were done at night. I learned 

 much from Bob about frogs when I accompanied him 

 on his frog-hunting trips. We did not catch many 

 snakes, but we were able to get a fair number of 

 skinks. The lizards were shot with a .22 pistol with 



