334 The Gardens of the Stm. [ch. xvi. 



river Kinabatangan opens up the country from the 

 north-east coast, and affords a good water-way by which 

 produce could be brought down to the coast ; but nearly 

 all the other rivers to the north-west, as far as Brunei, 

 are shallow and unnavigable, except for a mile or two 

 near the sea ; the roads inland being mere buffalo tracks, 

 and extremely irregular on the hill slopes. 



The highest land and coolest climate in the island is 

 on Kina Balu (altitude 13,700 feet), a large mountain 

 about five days' journey from the mouth of the Tampassuk 

 river. The lower slopes of this range might possibly 

 grow good coffee ; cinchona would be more likely to 

 succeed in the cool and fresh, but humid, climate of the 

 large spurs. The land here is in places deep and rich 

 with forest debris. In places good red land, with belts 

 of luxuriant bamboo amongst the sandstone boulders, 

 was seen. In estimating the richness of the soil, the 

 growth of a particular species of ginger common every- 

 where was observed, on poor soils it rarely exceeded a 

 foot in height, but on some of the hill slopes near Kina 

 Balu it attains a height of six or eight feet. 



The bamboo is also here more luxuriant than I ob- 

 served it elsewhere in the island, and the greater variety 

 and luxuriance of undergrowth shows that the climate or 

 soil, or both, are here better than near the coast. There 

 are rich alluvial deposits on the plains, where wet rice, 

 tapioca, sago, and fruits and vegetables generally, grow 

 well. Dry or hill rice, and the cocoanut palm, succeed 

 inland up to 3,000 feet elevation. 



In Sarawak land culture has not proved to be so 

 remunerative as the antimony and gold mines; in the 

 north, however, this order of things might possibly be 

 reversed. An English company has been formed for the 

 purpose of colonising the northern part of the island, 



