PREFACE 



MOUNT KINABALU, one of the loftiest mountains 

 of the INlalay Archipelago, is situated in British North 

 Borneo. It is an isolated mass of granite 13,455 feet high, divided 

 into several peaks, the highest of which is Low's Peak. The main 

 body of the mountain is about twenty miles inland from Ambong 

 Bay. Its tremendous height is accentuated by isolation. There 

 are no nearby mountains of comparable altitude to affect one's 

 estimate of its proportions. John Whitehead brought out this 

 point very clearly in the narrative of his ascent made for zoologi- 

 cal purposes in 1887 and 1888. The following lines are his : "The 

 country inland is much broken up by sandstone hills of low ele- 

 vation, generally bare of trees, and in this month (February) 

 parched and brown, covered with one of the tropical curses, lalang 

 grass. At the back of these lalang-covered hills are others topped 

 with forest, sometimes sharp-peaked and rugged ; at the back of 

 all, towering above everything, is that superbly grand mountain 

 Kinabalu. This wonderful mountain looks more imposing than 

 many mountains of a much greater altitude, from the fact that 

 it is an almost isolated mass, at the highest end mounting up to 

 the height of 13,698 feet (Belcher) and finishing off abruptly in 

 sheer precipices of 10,000 feet; its proximity to the sea-coast, 

 being less than forty miles in a direct line, allows of it being 



% viewed at once from the lowest level, none of its imposing gran- 



P deur being lost by a series of intervening plateaus which dwarf 



;. so many mountains." 



^ The forest cover is described as follows: 



'^ 1. The secondary forest (2500-4000 feet). 



2. The primary forest (3500-6000 feet). 

 ^^^ 3. The mossy forest (6000-9000 feet). 



[ix] 



