THE ORANG-UTAN 99 



About noon we arrived at Sampit, a clean, attractive 

 village situated on slightly higher ground than is generally 

 available on Bornean rivers. The stream is broad here, 

 having almost the appearance of a lake. As is the cus- 

 tom, a small park surrounds the controleur's residence, 

 and in the outskirts of the town is a small, well-kept 

 rubber plantation belonging to a German. Sampit is a 

 Katingan word, the name of an edible root, and according 

 to tradition the Katingans occupied the place in times 

 long gone by. 



The weather was remarkably dry, so that the tanks 

 at the corners of the controleur's house, on which he de- 

 pended for water, were becoming depleted. When the 

 fruits of the utan are ripe, the orang-utan may at times 

 be heard crying out in the neighbourhood, but on account 

 of the dry weather they had retired deeper into the jungle. 

 Chonggat shot only one, which was but half-grown and 

 easily killed by a charge of shot. It is often difficult to 

 discover an orang-utan because he has a knack of hid- 

 ing himself where the foliage is densest, and if alarmed 

 will proceed along the branches of tall trees and thus 

 disappear from sight. 



This intelligent, man-like ape is probably not so 

 common in Dutch Borneo as he is supposed to be. Mr. 

 Harry C. Raven, who collected animals in the north- 

 eastern part, told me that in a year he had shot only one. 

 The orang-utans are generally found in Southern Bor- 

 neo and do not go very far inland; in Central Borneo 

 they are extremely rare, almost unknown. It is to be 

 hoped that these interesting animals will not soon be ex- 



