372 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



expected to come up the river "wlien the tide turned, and we were 

 anxious to see it. Two miles down the Sadong we saw a ragged 

 brown fringe, reaching across the broad river, and rapidly com- 

 ing nearer. As it swung, like a long arm, around the point a 

 mile below, we plainly heard it roaring like a distant waterfall. On 

 it came, like a tidal wave, a great wall of surf, rolling and curling 

 over at the top, backed by a rushing plain of water nine feet thick. 

 It seemed like a thing of hfe and purpose, powerful, in-esistible. 

 I watched it every moment with tlie glass until it reached the 

 mouth of the Simujan, where our boats lay. There were no boats on 

 the Sadong, except two little sampans, manned by daring Malays, 

 both of which were upset by the bore, but the occupants ckmg to 

 their boats, and presently got ashore. 



The height of the bore, as nearly as I could determine, was between 

 nine and ten feet, and it travelled upward at the rate of about twelve 

 miles an hour. At a distance of half a mile, the sound it made 

 was like the roar of surf on a stormy beach. As the advancing 

 wave struck the sharp point of land at the confluence of the two 

 rivers, with a trul}' surf -like roar and thunder, a great volume of 

 water came sweeping up the Simujan, filling the little ditches and 

 catching up the boats that lay stranded high and dry on the muddy 

 banks. In less than half a minute the little river rose eight feet, 

 while, in the Sadong, we saw the great brown billows rolling past 

 the mouth of our snug harbor, and chasing each other up the ri\'er 

 in pursuit of the advancing toiTcnt. Our light sampans swung 

 round with the rushing ciu-rent, the word was given, and we sped 

 swiftly up the river with the advancing tide. 



A short distance up we met a sampan containing two Dyaks 

 who were bringing me two more mias, one dead and one alive. 

 The latter was a two-year-old youngster, tied to a stout stick, with 

 its hands above its head and its feet drawn well down and pinioned 

 also. 



It bit viciously at everj'thing, and made strenuous efforts to 

 seize an 3' one who came near it. I would as soon have trusted a 

 finger in a steel-trap as betwe'en those vicious jaws. 



At last, despairing of getting a chance at any of us, the raging 

 little wretch seized one of the fingers of its dead companion and bit 

 it to the bone. 



Both orangs were found on a tree near the Dyaks' village, and, 

 having no fire-arms, they promptly chopped down the tree. The 

 old one was killed with spears and pai'ongs, and so badly cut to 



