18 DUTCH BORNEO-EXPEDITION. 



thick trees. Every moment the feet sank through the moss 

 bedding into the entanglement of roots underneath, and 

 in trying to save ourselves from the stumble hereby caused, 

 one's arm not infrequently went right through the mossy 

 covering of a shoot as thick as a man's arm that we had 

 taken for a thick tree. 



A dense , cold mist lay deep over the wood , and it was 

 only with great difficulty that we made a way through the 

 dripping moss , in order to reach the precipitous northern 

 edge of the plateau , and to enjoy the view to be obtained 

 from there. We had, too, in the thick fog and the laby- 

 rinth of mossy columns , the greatest difficulty to keep 

 together , for at a distance of 1 paces it was no longer 

 possible to hear each other call; a gun-shot sounded like 

 a pistol-shot, and one had not the slightest idea as to the 

 direction from which the sound of the shot had come. All 

 around was still as the grave , nature seemed extinct , no 

 animal moved, no bird's voice was to be heard, no cricket 

 chirped, no cicade pierced the air with its saw-like, 

 characteristic call. Only the bush-leeches , those horrible 

 pests of the mountain-forests of Borneo , fell bloodthirstily 

 on us and forced themselves through every aperture in 

 our saturated clothing. 



As soon as we reached the edge of the northern preci- 

 pice, we lighted a great fire, for, soaked as we were, we 

 felt disagreeably cold in spite of a temperature of 20° C. 



According to my hypsometer, the plateau had here an 

 absolute height of 1135 meter, while the »Poenan-Grotto" 

 is only 784 meter above sea level. The southern edge of 

 the plateau, which is divided across in the middle by a 

 saddle into two almost equal parts, is about 1200 meter 

 high and descends perpendicularly on to a deep saddle 

 which separates it from Liang Pata situated to the south 

 of it, and also makes part of the Liang Koeboeng-rauge. 



Mount Liana; Fata is about 50 meter hij^her and has on 

 its northern extremity, just opposite the southern end of 

 the plateau above our grotto, a very striking, completely 



TSotes from the JLieyden Mluseum, Vol. XIX. 



