UP THE BARITO RIVER 113 



Puruk Tjahu (puruk = small hill; tjahu=running out 

 into the water) lies at a bend of the river in a somewhat 

 hilly and quite attractive country, which is blessed with 

 an agreeable climate and an apparent absence of mosqui- 

 toes. The captain in charge of the garrison told me that 

 he, accompanied by the native kapala of the district, was 

 going on a two months' journey northward, and at his 

 invitation I decided to follow him as far as Sungei Paroi. 

 I hoped that on my return a supply of films and plates, 

 ordered from London and already overdue, might have 

 arrived. It was, however, a very difficult proposition to 

 have everything ready in three days, because it was 

 necessary first to take out of my baggage what was needed 

 for the journey. It meant the opening of 171 boxes and 

 packages. Convicts were assigned to assist in opening 

 and closing these, which afterward were taken to a store- 

 house, but as I had no mandur I alone had to do the 

 fatiguing work of going through the contents. The doc- 

 tor of the garrison kindly furnished me with knives and 

 pincers for the taxidermist, as the collector's outfit was 

 missing from the boxes that had been returned from 

 Macassar. 



The Otto needed only one and a half hours to run down 

 stream to the Muara Laong, a Malay kampong at the 

 mouth of the river Laong, which we intended to ascend 

 by boats to the kampong Batu Boa, where the overland 

 journey was to begin. As soon as we arrived in the after- 

 noon the kapala was sent for to help in procuring a suffi- 

 cient number of prahus for the next day. I brought 

 twenty-nine coolies from Puruk Tjahu to serve as pad- 

 dlers. The kapala was unable to find enough prahus, but 



