74 



[April, 



1 left Ma tang on February l5tli with yfcat vegi'et. What one 

 might collect there in a few years would run into thousands of species: 

 its marvellous vegetation, huge trees, wonderful pitcher-plants and ferns, 

 its great drawback the lack of llowering trees in reach of a net and its 

 greatest horror the leeches. 



I spent a few days at Kueliing and then left for Quo]j, where 1 was 

 very fortunate to have the loan of a Mission Bungalow, close to a large 

 Davak house. This proved to be a very good collecting-centre, as 

 there were several Dayak paths, leading out in different directions into 

 patches of old jungle in low swampy country, and several steep hills 

 dotted about still clothed with good jungle ; there was also a good deal 

 of second growth, useless to the entomologist and to be hurried tlii'ough. 

 All the good land had been cleared from time to time by the Dayaks for 

 their paddi, as they farm in the most extravagant way, never growing 

 paddi on the same piece of ground for more than one year, and then 

 letting it revert to jungle for about fifteen years, so that the only 

 grountl that escapes the axe anywhere near a Dayak house is either too 

 swampy or too steej) ; but anyhow they had left enough for me, as with 

 hai-d work 1 added nearly 2000 species to my collection. 



The Da^ak roads here were very tricky and tiring to walk on, as 

 they were Batang roads — that is, trees of various sizes felled through 

 swampy jungle, and laid end to end for miles, — and they needed very 

 careful walking on by a European in boots, as they were always very 

 wet and greasy, the native with his bare feet having a great advantage. 

 My best collecting-ground, Gunong Sibinis, was reached after a steady 

 (or rather, unsteady) hour of doing the tight-rope on these trees. In 

 many places they are raised several yards from the ground to avoid 

 floods, and even then they get flooded in places, and to Avalk a flooded 

 Batang road needed a lot of practice to do it in the correct style, to look 

 at an insect was fatal. All the streams here Avere crossed b}^ a single 

 bamboo, sometimes with a shaky hand-rail, more often without. 



Ai-rived at the foot of (lunong Sibinis, which appeared to be partly 

 sandstone, there was a very steep slippery scramble to the summit, by 

 hanging on to the roots and creepers. At the top, which was about 

 1000 feet, I got my Dayaks to malce a clearing, which, after a few 

 days, turned out most ]ji'ohtable, our best day's catch being 114 species 

 of Coleo]}U'ni. Three days after the clearing was niade we captured a 

 great number of Longicorns of the family Clijfidae, which were attracted 

 by the dying foliage and timber — Xylotrechvs, Demonax, Ferisstis, 

 and ChloroplioriDi. Forty-three species of these were captured at 



