90 BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. [chap. 



well, but the few oranges and pummaloes that had been tried were 

 covered with blight. The soil appeared poor, and the judicious 

 planting (in a metaphorical sense) of a town lot must, no doubt, 

 have been a far more profitable employment. 



At Silam, in Darvel Bay, the best land in Sabah is said to be 

 met with. Thirty acres were cleared shortly after the establish- 

 ment of the Company, and planted experimentally with tea, coffee, 

 cinchona, cacao, sugar, and other products. Of these coffee and 

 sugar seem to have done well, far better indeed than the four 

 Europeans who were looking after the plantation. As we arrived 

 in Sandakan we found the doctor starting to their assistance, 

 intelligence having just arrived that they were all down with fever. 

 We did not visit the settlement, and had consequently no oppor- 

 tunity of judging of its success, but although the cultivation of 

 tobacco was recommended, that of cinchona and blue-gum trees 

 would also appear to be not inadvisable. 



We had heard a good deal of the rivers flowing into Sandakan 

 Bay, and of the fertility of the soil that formed their banks. On 

 the 11th of April we accordingly started for the Sigaliud in a 

 heavy steam launch drawing nearly seven feet of water aft, pro- 

 visioned for a four or five days' absence. The river is a large one, 

 and debouching at the head of the bay is nearly fifteen miles 

 distant from Elopura. With the Marchesas cutter and skiff in 

 tow we reached the mouth in a couple of hours' steaming, passing 

 a picturesque native "village at the entrance. There is a depth of 

 sixteen feet on the bar at low water, and the stream is navigable 

 for barges and such craft for about thirty miles from the mouth. 

 There is a striking and wearisome monotony in all these Bornean 

 rivers. At first nothing is to be seen but mangroves. The actual 

 breadth of the river it is impossible to guess, for land and water 

 merge imperceptibly into one another behind the thick curtain of 

 dull, lifeless green. Four or five miles are passed thus, and then a 

 stray Nipa palm rises here and there from the hot and muddy 

 stream. It is just as much a water plant as the mangrove, and 



