FROM SARAWAK TO THE SADONG. 351 



Two miles from the Chinese kampong, on the eastern side of 

 the Simujan, is the government coal mine, to which a wooden tram- 

 way leads through the swamps, the only railway in all Borneo. 

 "With a letter in my pocket to ]\Ir. Walters, the superintendent of 

 the mine, I started to walk up the tramway, and half way to the 

 mine I found the gentleman himself coming to see me. We were 

 friends in five minutes. He entered heartily into my plans, and 

 gave me much valuable information and advice. Our acquaintance 

 throughout was a most pleasant one, and I never wearied of his 

 sketches of jungle Hfe. But on the subject of orang-utan hunting 

 he confessed himself at fault. He had seen many orangs and killed 

 several, but for several months he had not even heard of any in 

 that vicinity. 



Two days later he hurriedly sent word to me that a mias had 

 just been seen in the jungle about two miles above the mine. In 

 less than an hour we were at the mine, and, accompanied by Mr. 

 Walters and several Dyaks and Malays, we set out under consider- 

 able excitement to find the animal. We followed a rugged forest 

 path until we reached the spot, but the mias was nowhere to be 

 seen. We divided our party and hunted about until nightfall, but 

 found nothing save a fresh mias' nest, and so returned in disap- 

 pointment. 



The next day we determined to try the experiment of hunting 

 through the forest at random. Early in the morning there arrived 

 a Dyak named Dundang, who has the reputation of being a very 

 successful hunter. He was a fine specimen, though too muscular 

 to be considered a tj^ical Dyak. His entire costume consisted 

 of a yard-wide strip of bark-cloth wound around his loins and 

 passed between his thighs with the ends falling down apron-wise 

 in front. His head-gear was a strip of faded pink caHco wound 

 around his head and partly confining his long jet-black locks. He 

 was accompanied by another Dyak, and, with them to guide us, 

 Perera and I set out for a tramp. 



No sooner had we fairly turaed our backs on the coolie quarters 

 at the mines than we were in the jungle. We had decided to try 

 the swamp forest first, and if that yielded us nothing we would 

 take to the low mountain which rises out of it like an island. We 

 plunged into the swamp and for several hours waded through its 

 miry mazes, but saw no animals save one monkey and a few small 

 birds and insects for which we cared nothing. 



The trees were rather low, as a rule, but grew very thickly to- 



