SARAWAK, PAST AT^D PRESENT. 337 



expanse of level forest. A lofty, flat-topped mountain called Peuris- 

 sen, elevation four thousand four hundred and fifty feet, lying di- 

 rectly south fi'om Cape Sipang, was pointed out as the site which 

 had been selected by the Government of Sarawak for a sanitarium. 



The Sarawak River has two main entrances, one called the 

 Santubong, which forms a northwest pass, while the Moritabas is 

 the northeast pass. On the triangular island thus formed, Santu- 

 bong Peak rises grandly up, like a nearly perfect cone, to a height 

 of two thousand seven hundred and twelve feet, and forms a noble 

 landmark at the river's mouth, visible forty miles at sea. 



The Santubong entrance is difficult and dangerous to navigate 

 on account of its sand banks and shoal water, and the Rajah Brooke 

 always acts on the principle that the longest way round is the 

 shortest way to Sarawak. We passed Cape Sipang and presently 

 rounded Po Point, upon which rocky promontory sits a dumpy Ht- 

 tle light-house. From the flag-staff floats the flag of His Highness, 

 the Rajah of Sarawak, a St. George's cross half black and half red 

 on a yellow field. The face of Po Point is a smooth cliff of brown- 

 ish hmestone, which shows pale yeUow in places where masses of 

 rock have been freshly broken away by round shot from British 

 gunboats and men-of-war. These vessels are in the habit of using 

 the cliff as a target for cannon practice whenever opportunity affords. 



At the mouth of the Moritabas entrance, the river is about thi*ee 

 hundred yards in width. The west bank rises in a considerable 

 hill, but the eastern shoi-e is a level, alluvial plain of soft mud, 

 scarcely above tide level. At the foot of the hill is the village of 

 Santubong, inhabited by Malay fishei-men. The tide is at the ebb 

 as we enter, and the smooth surface of the river is covered with 

 dead leaves and stems of the nipa palm, decayed logs, dry bamboo 

 stems, chunks of Avood, sticks, leaves, and trash — in short, a level 

 plain of driftwood floating swiftly out to sea. "We wondered which 

 of those logs would be the one to drift far out past Point Po, into 

 the great equatorial current of the East Indies corresponding to our 

 Gulf Stream, and be borne along on the bosom of the Black River, 

 past Japan, until finally cast ashore on one of the Aleutian Islands 

 to serve some islander as firewood, or timber for a new harpoon 

 handle. The river needed skimming, badly, and like most equato- 

 rial streams, it needed straining and filtering also, for it was brown 

 and murky with decayed vegetation and vegetable mould. 



The banks are covered with low mangi-oves and nipa pahns 

 [Nipa fruticans) growing in the soft mud, the latter sending up 

 22 



