MY BIG TUSKER. 1 77 



I remember on one occasion in my district, three 

 young natives were fishing in a prahu. It was in an 

 estuary of the sea, though the water was not more than 

 three or four feet deep. They were casting hand-nets. 



The two men who escaped related to me that the 

 third man called out : " Help me ! I have enclosed a big fish 

 in my net". They went towards him, but as they did so 

 a great crocodile seized the young fellow and pulled him 

 out of the boat. They never saw him again. He must 

 have thrown his net over the crocodile, and have felt its 

 weight just as the crocodile was going at him. 



For the benefit of the geological reader I will state 

 that the rivers bring down a quantity of detritus and 

 deposit it to seaward. At last this rises above the level 

 of the sea and forms banks. Then the birds and the 

 winds bring seeds of vegetation, and these banks become 

 clothed with mangrove or nipa palm. Thus the land is 

 continually extending seaward. This may be an errone- 

 ous theory, but it seems to be the only one which 

 accounts for the facts. 



The mangrove flourishes nearest to the coast, and will 

 only grow where its roots are actually covered by salt 

 water at high tide, and the nipa palm takes the place of 

 the mangrove a little higher up stream where the highest 

 tide fails to overflow the banks. 



The river here made some very sharp turns like an S. 

 Suddenly one of my Dyaks ceased paddling and pointed 

 to the bank inquiringly. I listened and heard a swishing 

 sound amongst the nipas, as though of some large animal 

 on the feed. The timbadau do not come down so far as 

 the region of nipas, so I guessed that it must be either 

 elephant or rhinoceros. We swiftly paddled to shore, and 

 making fast our boat to an overhanging bough of a tree, 



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