248 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



We left Kuching on half-flood one morning 1 in 

 three boats of the usual up-river type, long low canoes 

 hewn out of tree-trunks with the side-planking at- 

 tached by rattan lashings, and covering in the craft a 

 low roof of palm-leaf thatch. Besides ourselves and 

 a Malay crew, our party consisted of four Dayak 

 hunters, a Malay, and two Chinese servants. The 

 boats were loaded down to the gunwale with bags of 

 rice containing a month's supply for all of us, pro- 

 visions of other sorts for Cox and myself, collecting 

 gear, clothes, and other necessaries. Our crews were 

 not large enough, and we made such slow progress 

 that we did not get very far before the tide turned, 

 and we spent some weary hours at a small riverside 

 bungalow until the middle of the night, when we 

 started on again. By dawn we had reached the point 

 of junction of the left-hand and right-hand branches 

 of the Sarawak River ; a halt was called for breakfast 

 on a gravel-bed, and for a bath in the sparkling 

 waters of the river. Then on again, and for the rest 

 of that day our undermanned and heavily laden boats 

 struggled up the rapids and shallows of the narrowing 

 river, so that it was six o'clock before we reached the 

 Government bungalow at Segu and received a warm 

 welcome from the gentleman in charge of the Govern- 

 ment coffee-plantations at that place. 



Next day, after much parleying, we exchanged two of 

 our boats for four lighter craft more suitable for travel 

 in shallow and rapid waters, and engaged some Land- 

 Dayaks to take the place of some of our Malays who 

 now wished to return to Kuching. This day was a 



1 Mr. H. N. Ridley has a note that the date was May 5, 1899. 

 Author's Preface, pp. xxv-xxvii, should be read here. 



