FEOil SARAWAK TO THE SADOXG. 353 



sions, convinced me that my way to the orang-utan did not lie in 

 that direction. Then Ave tried the mountain back of the coal mine. 

 We traversed its entire length, hunted over its top and along its 

 sides, over sticks and stones, and across rocky gorges, but not a 

 sign of mias could -we discover. After a week spent in such hunt- 

 ing at random, -without any success, we gave it up. Once more I 

 began to interview the natives as fast as I could catch them, Dyaks, 

 Malays, and Chinese as well, as to the present whereabouts of the 

 mias. I elicited no information which I considered valuable until 

 one day two Dyaks arrived from the head-waters of the Simujan 

 Eiver to buy rice at the government store-house. They informed 

 me that they saw two mias as they came down the river, that 

 they often saw them near their village at Padang Lake, and they 

 gave it as their opinion that if I would go up there and hunt for 

 three or four days I might get two or thi-ee mias, and perhaps 

 more. " Two or three ! " I held my breath in suspense until they 

 brought out their figures, and when they said " two or thi-ee " I 

 could have hugged them. Had they said I would find them in 

 " millions, sir, millions ! " they would have blasted all my hopes for 

 that river. But the Dyak statement had a ring of truth in it, and 

 I instantly decided to put their advice to the test. I felt so certain 

 it would " pan out " well that I made arrangements to start up the 

 river immediately, and prepared for a prolonged absence. 

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