38 THROrr.H CENTRAL BORNEO 



make their boats. TIk- trunk is very tall ami nuich thicker 

 near the ground. 



Reaching a height of 500 metres, the ground began to 

 be slipper)' with yellow mud, but the jungle impeded one 

 less than the thickets around Lenox, Massachusetts, in the 

 Ignited States. Toward the south of our camp here, the 

 hill had an incline of 45 degrees or less, and one hard- 

 wood tree that we felled travelled downward for a dis- 

 tance of 150 metres. A pleasant soft breeze blew for 

 about ten minutes, for the first time on our journey, and 

 the afternoon was wonderfully cool. 



A Kayan messenger here arrived from the kampong, 

 bringing a package which contained my mail, obligingly 

 sent me by the controleur. The package made a pro- 

 found impression on the Dayaks as well as on the Chinese 

 interpreter, all of whom crowded around my tent to ob- 

 serve what would follow. I went elsewhere for a little 

 while, but it was of no avail. They were waiting to see 

 the contents, so I took my chair outside, opened and read 

 my mail, closely watched all the time by a wondering 

 crowd. 



None of our attendant natives had been in this part 

 of the country before except a Punan, now adopted into 

 the Kayan tribe, who knew it long ago and his memory 

 at times seemed dimmed. Fresh tracks of rhinoceros and 

 bear were seen and tapirs are known to exist among these 

 beautiful wcK)ded hilU. Chonggat succeeded in shooting 

 an exceedingly rare squirrel with a large bushy tail. We 

 fmally made camp on top of a hill fyj^ metres in height 

 which we called kampong Clunong. 



