414 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



and, being at that season without money and veiy nearly without 

 rice, they bestirred themselves to earn a little money. The people of 

 our village agreed to furnish me with from two to three guides every 

 day for a cash consideration, and they never disappointed me. 



There was a fine young man in our house who was not only 

 willing but anxious to accompany me in my hunting trips, and we 

 fraternized at once. With him for a guide and Dobah to carry 

 game, I set out in the afternoon to look over the ground. 



On one side of our clearing lay a vast and almost impenetrable 

 tract of swamp-forest, choked with a dense, thorny undergrowth 

 gi'owing in the water. On the other side, however, there rose a 

 succession of hills, neither too high nor too steep for comfort, cov- 

 ered with fine high forest, while what little undergi'owth there was 

 ■was not of the thorny kind. There were many charming httle 

 glens and rocky ravines with small streams of clear, cold water 

 dashing down to where tlxree of them came together and formed the 

 source of the Sibuyau River. It gives one a strange sensation to 

 stand at the very soiu'ce of a river, where it is a feeble brook which 

 one crosses at a single stride. It is a satisfaction to know all about 

 one river, at least, even though it be a small one, from its mouth, 

 "where it loses itself in the sea, up to the very springs in the hills 

 from whence the first cupful of water starts down. 



I was rejoiced at my good fortune in being led — by blind in- 

 stinct, I may say — to such a dehghtful wilderness. It w'as the finest 

 hunting-ground I saw anywhere in Sarawak. I was sure that such 

 high ground and fine open forest must be fi'equented by correspond- 

 ingly fine mammals and birds in great numbei's, for it seemed to 

 me just the spot an animal would choose for a home — I would have 

 been content to end my days there, had I been a monkey — and the 

 Dyaks assiu^ed me my surmise was con-ect. 



In order to place before the reader a pen picture of our daily 

 life in the jungle with the Dyaks, what we did, saw, and thought, I 

 venture to transcribe a portion of my much despised but faithfully 

 kept journal. 



" November 1st. — That fine young Dyak accompanies me regu- 

 larly now as a guide, and with him and my faithful little Malay man, 

 Dobah, I went out hunting for orang-utans and Hylohates. We 

 hunted far and wide over the hills, saw a great number of mias 

 nests, but no mias. But we at last became absorbed in trying to 

 kill a gibbon, and it soon developed into genuine sport, about the 



