xxi] THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO 341 



when and where they pleased. We lived a week at the foot 

 of the mountain, in a little hut built by our men, near a 

 beautiful rocky stream. I got some fine new butterflies there, 

 and hundreds of other new or rare insects. Huge centipedes 

 and scorpions, some nearly a foot long, were common, but we 

 none of us got bitten or stung. We only had rice, and a little 

 fish and tea, but came home quite well. The mountain is 

 over four thousand feet high. Near the top are beautiful 

 ferns and pitcher-plants, of which I made a small collection. 

 Elephants and rhinoceroses, as well as tigers, are abundant 

 there, but we had our usual bad luck in seeing only their 

 tracks. On returning to Malacca I found the accumulation 

 of two or three posts — a dozen letters, and about fifty 

 newspapers. ... I am glad to be safe in Singapore with 

 my collections, as from here they can be insured. I have 

 now a fortnight's work to arrange, examine, and pack 

 them, and four months hence there will be work for Mr. 

 Stevens. 1 



" Sir James Brooke is here. I have called on him. He 

 received me most cordially, and offered me every assistance 

 at Sarawak. I shall go there next, as the missionary does 

 not go to Cambodia for some months. Besides, I shall have 

 some pleasant society at Sarawak, and shall get on in Malay, 

 which is very easy ; but I have had no practice yet, though I 

 can ask for most common things." 



I reached Sarawak early in November, and remained in 

 Borneo fourteen months, seeing a good deal of the country. 

 The first four months was the wet season, during which I 

 made journeys up and down the Sarawak river, but obtained 

 very scanty collections. In March I went to the Sadong 

 river, where coal mines were being opened by an English 

 mining engineer, Mr. Coulson, a Yorkshireman, and I stayed 

 there nearly nine months, it being the best locality for 

 beetles I found during my twelve years' tropical collecting, 

 and very good for other groups. It was also in this place 



1 They were sent by sailing ship round the Cape of Good Hope, the overland 

 route being too costly for goods. 



