156 NATURAL HISTORY. 



first sight. Duriatis are nearly as large as jacks., and sold at this period, 17 for 

 a dollar, and our hero invested a dollar in them then and there. 



The durian groves were tended by Malays, who lived, for fear of wild beasts, 

 in platforms on the trees, such as we should call " Machans." Further on 

 Mr. Hornaday met with " Junglies" called Jacoons ; who had never housed in any 

 other way ; and whom he supposes to be descended from emigrant Bornean 

 Dyaks. These primitive folk live {ov lived then) on game and forest produce 

 alone, specially bats swarming in certain caves, obtained by the simple process of 

 knocking them down with sticks, which the present writer has found pretty 

 efficacious at Ajanta in the like case. " Fortunately they knew the value o* 

 money" and became shikaris to our author and bis comrade ; and assisted at the 

 slaying of an elephant. Here Mr. Hornaday obtained a dead python ; and here he 

 digresses to observe that throughout the Indies he found serpents as scarce " as in 

 Ireland;" which " was disgusting, after all the big snake stories I had heard." 

 The only snake he saw in Selangore was " a vicious little viperine affair, which 

 I killed with a prayer-book in Captain D.'s drawing-room, while kneeling at 

 prayers one Sunday evening." 



From Singapore Mr. Hornaday was bound for Borneo ; but the Singaporeans 

 wouldn't or wouldn't tell him much about it. However he fell in with one of the 

 District Officers of Raja Brooke, and accompanied him to Sarawak, as we call it ; 

 but on the spot people call it Kuehing, which is to say "a cat." 



He admired the Raja's government, and proceeded to collect specimens, and get 

 ready for a trip into the interior. The Raja pays rewards for the slaughter of 

 crocodiles (C porosus), on a graduated scale, by the linear foot, and 

 Mr. Hornaday gives the statistics of 1878 for two rivers. During that year 266 

 crocodiles were brought in to be measured and paid for. One was 13 feet 10 inches 

 long, two others exceeded 13 feet, two more 12 feet, ten were over 11 feet, and 18 

 over 10 feet. The majority were between 7 and 9 feet long. The application of a 

 foot-rule has a singularly dwarfing effect upon the dimensions of reptiles. Besides 

 the estuarine crocodilus porosus, Borneo has a rare gavial (Tomistoma Schleyelli) 

 which Mr. Hornaday did not see in the flesh, but he got a skull 3 feet 3 inches 

 long. 



The District Officers gave him a passage to the Sadong River, and quarters in 

 the " Government House," or, as we should call it, the " District Bungalow," from 

 which he hunted for several days, but got nothing to speak of; so acting on 

 information obtained from the Dyaks of the Simujan he started up that river in 

 his own boat, in company with a Government writer, Mr. Eng Quee. Here he 

 made acquaintance with a Dyak ' f long-house," a whole village under one roof, 

 and over one floor (the whole supported on piles), and at the first attempt he 

 shot three ourang-outangs in one day. 



This shikar was accomplished in a canoe, paddling in a forest flooded with 

 several feet of water, yet dense and lofty enough to allow the ourang-outangs to 

 travel from tree to tree at a great height from the ground. As ourangs can't swim, 

 they have to stick to the tree-tops. 



From August to December he lived amongst the Dyaks; occasionally meeting 

 with the Raja's officers, or accompanying them on their tours. Then he packed 

 up and went home'. This last part of the book, dealing with Borneo, its beasts 



