SWAMPS AND CROCODILES 



We made an early start the following morning — 

 in a country such as North Borneo the first few 

 hours of the day are usually worth all the others 

 put together — and paddled up-stream until about ten 

 o'clock, when we decided to land and make a short 

 cut through the jungle, leaving the canoes to meet us 

 some days later. 



In this part the Labuk River winds considerably. 

 Its width, generally speaking, is about fifty yards, the 

 banks being fringed with huge nipa palms, which often 

 serve as screens for horrible mangrove swamps, the 

 homes of crocodiles innumerable. 



I had not been many minutes in the jungle before 

 I began to regret the canoes, in spite of all their 

 discomforts. The heat was appalling, and soon we were 

 marching only in running knickers and silk singlets. 

 Even then we were half blinded by the perspiration 

 running down into our eyes. 



About two hours from the start I noticed a small 

 snake lying dead in the track. My companion, 

 Clarke, explained that it was one of the most 

 dangerous reptiles to be found in the jungle. We 

 discovered that one of our own boys had just killed it 

 with a parang. We were not long in finding out that 

 we had, literally, to fight our way through the jungle. 

 Every few yards one or other of us was held up 

 by those detestable hooked thorns well named the 

 " wait-a-bits." We had to cut our way through these, 



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