482 TWO YEARS I]Sr THE JUNGLE. 



introduced himself directly and greeted me very cordially. "We met 

 again in the evening at the dinner-table, and he proved to be a very 

 jolly and hospitable host. 



On reaching the mines, I found Mr. H, H. Everett, brother of 

 our Paku naturalist, at the furnaces, weighing out bags of cinnabar 

 dust, and close beside him on the ground stood about sixty flasks 

 of mercury ready for shipment to London. A " flask " is a mallea- 

 ble iron bottle with a screw top, which holds seventy-five pounds of 

 mercui'y. 



The cinnabar ore comes out of a very steep, double-peaked hill 

 composed of semi-metamoi'jDhic rock, rising to an elevation of 

 about one thousand feet above the sea, and six hundred and fifty 

 feet above the level of the adjacent swamp. Mr. Everett, with the 

 most cheerful resignation and truly guide-like patience, took me 

 into each of the four " levels " that have been mined into the hill, 

 one above another, and gave me all the facts in the case as we pro- 

 ceeded. The lowest level was a new one, and the tunnel had not 

 yet reached the ore. The other thi-ee had penetrated quite to the 

 heart of the hill, and on reaching the paying ore it had been mined 

 in every direction, forming a great cavern at the end of each tunnel. 

 The miners are all Chinamen who work out the ore and sell it to 

 the Company according to the assay. The ore was then very pooi', 

 and although the rock containad only four per cent, of mercury it 

 was worked as a matter of necessity and at a loss, while all concerned 

 hoped constantly for something better. In one of the levels Mi-. 

 Everett showed me a very rich pocket, which had yielded ore al- 

 most as heavy as mercury, being ninety per cent, pure metal. 



The Tegora mines were opened in 1868. The first ore taken 

 out was stamped, by which process about one-fourth of the metal 

 was lost in the washing. Now it is smelted, and the vapor contain- 

 ing the metal is passed through a flue or shaft about one thousand 

 feet long, which leads off up the steep side of the hill. The mer- 

 cury is gradually condensed upon the sides of the flue, which after 

 a time is cleaned out by men sent into it. The cleaners often 

 get badly saHvated, so much so that they are sometimes utterly 

 helpless from the sores which break out upon difi"erent parts of 

 their bodies. "We saw two poor fellows who were helpless from 

 salivation ; and ]VIr. Everett himself was also badly off from an 

 overdose of mercury. 



The officers of the Borneo Company are verj' comfortably 

 housed close to the mines, and in the evening at dinner we were 



