Menage Expedition to the Philippines 171 



coal schooner bound to the Sadeng coal mines. Christmas was 

 spent at sea, pitching about in the schooner. We reached Sadeng 

 on the 26th. A week about Sadeng convinced me that it was 

 not the place for my work, so on January 2nd I loaded all of my 

 goods on a small boat and started for the Sibuyan . river. On 

 reaching the mouth of the Sadeng river we met bad weather and 

 were compelled to turn back. Not to lose time, I decided to make 

 a short trip up a small river that empties into the Sadeng almost 

 at its mouth. The baggage was unloaded and put in a small 

 empty house on the bank, and on the 4th, with a light outfit and 

 provisions for a week, I started. That night we reached a Dyak 

 house, where I was very hospitably received. I was presented 

 with a fowl and four plates of rice (one from each family) and 

 in return presented each of the leading men with a little tobacco, 

 with which I had of course supplied myself for this special pur- 

 pose. Then we talked ordinary orang-outang (mias). The men 

 were of the opinion that a mias might be obtained on a hill, an 

 hour's walk from the house. So I decided to try it on the fol- 

 lowing day. After another two hours' talk on various subjects, 

 I spread my sleeping mat and tried to rest. Very poor success 

 however, as the floor was hard and the people talked and laughed 

 till past midnight. It is the season of the rice harvest and they 

 were all busy pounding, winnowing and assorting rice. 



In the morning, with one Malay and two Dyaks, I started for 

 the hill. The path was through the swamps and was very hard 

 indeed to travel. A misstep sent one into soft mud from one to 

 three feet deep. It was a rather long hour's walk, but we reached 

 the hill at last and began to look for mias. One Dyak went on 

 one side while the other with the Malay kept with me. About the 

 middle of the forenoon we heard the report of a gun, the signal 

 agreed upon, and retraced our steps until we came up with the 

 Dyak. He was following two mias that he had found on the 

 edge of the swamp below. They were in very high trees, but no 

 tree is too high for a Winchester, and soon I had both mias on 

 the ground, dead. They fell with a great crash and the larger 

 one struck so heavily that some of its bones were broken. They 

 were not of the largest size, evidently a young pair just started 

 out, but were in good condition and furnished good skins and 

 skeletons. The following day we continued on up the river to an- 

 other hill, where we put up a rude shelter as protection against 



