ch. xiv.] Looking Back. 299 



be obtainable by felling the primaeval forests on the enor- 

 mous spurs of Kina Balu itself. We parted just as a 

 heavy shower came on, and pursued our way to Ghinam- 

 baur, which place we reached about four o'clock, drenched 

 to the skin and covered with mud to our waists, the roads 

 being in a frightful state owing to the rain. We sought 

 our old quarters, and soon made ourselves comfortable for 

 the night. We heard that a court-house was being built 

 here by Mr. Pretyman, but did not see it, and inquiries 

 as to what the " white man" was going to do were numer- 

 ous, as indeed they had been all along our route. 



After resting, I could not resist making the accompany- 

 ing sketch of the great mountain as it loomed up through 

 the cloud strata just before sunset. We were four days' 

 journey from its base, and yet it seemed so very nigh to 

 us in the last hours of sunlight as to appear only a mile 

 or two distant through the sun-lit air of evening. 



August 23rd. — We started early this morning from 

 Ghinambaur, having a Avalk of fifteen miles before us over 

 wretched roads ere we arrived at Mr. Pretyman's resi- 

 dence, " Port Alfred," on the Tampassuk. My buffalo 

 was nearly knocked up, and so I left her in charge of the 

 men, and I and Smith, trusting to our knowledge of the 

 way, pushed on ahead. We had a hard day's work a 

 greater part of the way, floundering about in the mud of 

 buffalo tracks, or crossing streams and creeks up to 

 our necks, with just such a suspicion of lurking alligators 

 being in them as made the thing exciting. I stayed at 

 one place to collect palm-seeds, and the roots of a dwarf 

 zingiberaceous plant, bearing pretty little white and lilac 

 flowers. Here and there in the jungle we also saw a 

 large amorphophallus, bearing erect spikes of red berries, 

 and a pale-leaved variety of banana had its leaves beauti- 

 fully blotched with reddish purple. In one place we had 



