BORNEAN MAMMALS. 97 



Mr. Windsor Earl thus describes this character of the New Guinea Coast: "The sea-coasts 

 of alluvial regions are invariably lined by belts of mangroves, which sometimes extend into the sea 

 for miles beyond the level of high water ; and in New Guinea, as well as on the northern coasts of 

 Australia, the mangroves assume the character of forest trees about the upper parts, while the lower 

 consists of a, network of strong fibrous roots, which is absolutely impenetrable without the aid of the 

 axe, and even then it is impossible to proceed unless the mud has sufiicient consistency to support 

 the weight of the body, which is rarely the case, cxcej)t at dead low water. As the coast tribes, 

 who derive their chief sustenance from the sea, have to cross this belt almost daily, they naturally 

 prefer scrambling througli the upper branches, which are strong enough^ to afford secure footing, 

 while at the same time they entertwiue with each other in so peculiar a manner, that with a little 

 practice this singular mode of travelling can even be adopted by Europeans. Indeed, the writer on 

 more than one occasion has seen a file of marines, with muskets on their shoulders, steadily making 

 their way over mangrove swamps in this manner, although they certainly did not display the 

 monkey-lUve agility that M. Modera has so graphically described." 



The grajjhic account by M. Modera to which Mr. Earl refers, is as follows : " On the afternoon 

 of the day in which the encounter took place, the naturalists, well armed, returned to the creek at 

 high water, and saw a spectacle which was also witnessed by those on board with the aid of 

 tclcscojics : laamely, the trees full of natives of both sexes, who, with weapons on their backs, sjirang 

 from branch to branch like monkeys, making the same gestures as in the morning, and shouting and 

 laughing in like manner, without our people beiog able to tempt them out of the trees by throwing 

 presents towards them, so that they returned on board again."* 



Although there are lofty mountains in Borneo (probably all volcanic), the greater part of 

 that immense island is low and flat, and the mountains may have risen too late to have saved from 

 extinction tlie animals which required solid footing and dry land for their existence. 



An examination of the ^lammalian fauna of Borneo shows, that, with a very few excei^tions 

 (which may perhaps be capable of individual explanation), the mammals are either arboreal in their 

 habits, or amphibious, or flj'ing, or in some way or other capable of subsisting in a half-drowned land. 

 On analysing its Fauna I find nine monkeys, all arboreal ; three lemurs, all arboreal ; twentj'-seven 

 bats, which may also be called all arboreal, at least none of them terrestrial ; four Cladobates, 

 small insectivorous animals which Kve like squirrels, and are known by the same name (Tujjaias) by 

 the Malays (also arboreal) ; one shrew-mouse ; the Ptilocercus Lowii and Hylomys Suillus, 

 the latter small insectivorous animals, found about 1500 or 2000 feet above the sea, are arboreal ; the 

 Bornoan bear (arboreal) ; one polecat (also arboreal) ; two otters (ampliibious) ; a Cynogai.k (web- 

 footed and amjihibious) ; either the leopard or a small panthcr,t and one or two small felines 



* " Verhaal van eeue Reizc naar de Zuid-wcst Kust van that Schmarda is wrong in omitting it. Mr. St. John, op. 



Nicw-Guiuea," door I. Modera. Haarlem, 1830. cit. ii. p. 252, mentions a small Panther among the prin- 



t Schmarda, in his " Geographische Verbreitung dcr cipal animals which frequent the forests of Borneo, and 



Thiere," vol. ii. p. 504, does not mention the Leopard as one gives something like circumstantial evidence of its pre- 



of the Bornean felines, and before I looked particularly into scnce. " I never saw," says he, " the Tree Tiger in its wild 



the question I trusted to his authority, and supposed that state ; but, as I have before noticed, its skin is large enough 



my hypothesis was at fault so far as regarded it ; for it is an ^ to form a lighting jacket for a man. The Tiger Cat and 



expert climber, and resorts to the branches of trees either other felines are not uncommon." Mr. Blyth quotes a 



in pursuit of game or when it is itself pursued, — in fact, paper in the " Singapore Chronicle," for December, 1824, in 



passes much of its life on the branches of trees ; conse- which it is stated that " a species of Leopard, but not the 



quently there was no reason why it should be excluded royal Tiger," is found in the northern peninsula of the 



like the Tiger, which cannot climb. It turns out, however. Island. 



o 



