94 Borneo. 



with the trunk of the tree immediately overhead. Trees of 

 this character are found all over the Archipelago, and the ac- 

 comj)anying illustration (taken from one which I often visited 

 in the Aru Islands) will convey some idea of their general char- 

 acter. I believe that they originated as parasites, from seeds 

 carried by birds and dropped in the fork of some lofty tree. 

 Hence descend aerial roots, clasping and ultimately destroy- 

 ing the supporting tree, which is in time entirely rej)laced by 

 the humble plant which was at first dependent upon it. Thus 

 we have an actual struggle for life in the vegetable kingdom, 

 not less fatal to the vanquished than the struggles among 

 animals which we can so much more easily observe and un- 

 derstand. The advantage of quicker access to light and 

 warmth and air, which is gained in one way by climbing 

 plants, is here obtained by a forest-tree, which has the means 

 of starting in life at an elevation which others can only attain 

 after many years of growth, and then only when the fall of 

 some other tree has made room for them. Thus it is that in 

 the warm and moist and equable climate of the tropics, each 

 available station is seized upon, and becomes tlie means of 

 developing new forms of life especially adapted to occupy it. 

 On reaching Sarawak early in December I foiind there 

 would not be an opportunity of returning to Singapore till 

 the latter end of January. I therefore accepted Sir James 

 Brooke's invitation to spend a week with him and Mr, St. 

 John at his cottage on Peninjauh. This is a very steep 

 pyramidal mountain of crystalline basaltic rock, about a 

 thousand feet high, and covered with luxuriant forest. 

 There are three Dyak villages upon it, and on a little plat- 

 form near the summit is the rude wooden lodge where the 

 English Rajah was accustomed to go for relaxation and cool 

 fresh air. It is only twenty miles up the river, but the road 

 up the mountain is a succession of ladders on the face of 

 precipices, bamboo bridges over gulleys and chasms, and 

 slippery paths over rocks and tree-trunks and huge boulders 

 as big as houses. A cool spring under an overhanging rock 

 just below the cottage furnished us with refreshing baths 

 and delicious drinking-water, and the Dyaks brought us 

 daily heaped-up baskets of mangosteens and lansats, two of 

 the most delicious of the subacid tropical fruits. We re- 



