90 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
slight push detaches it from the rock; the spear is then with- 
drawn until the head is within reach of the second man, who 
takes the nest off the prongs and puts it in a pouch carried at 
the waist. 
We again took up our quarters for the night at the mouth of 
Simud Putih, and after dinner, in course of conversation with 
the head men, elicited a few facts about the caves. The annual 
value varies from 25,000 to 30,000 dols.; they had been worked 
for seven generations without any diminution in the quantity ; 
three crops were gathered during the year; accidents to the men 
employed very rarely occurred, notwithstanding the dangerous 
nature of their occupation; unless a considerable quantity of 
black nest is gathered, the supply of white nest falls off. There 
is an almost inexhaustible supply of guano in the caves, and the 
number of bats and birds in them is so enormous that, if they 
are undisturbed, a regular quantity may be taken out yearly. 
On March 22nd we left our cave at 7 a.m., and after a fare- 
well visit to Simud Itam commenced our return journey. During 
our walk we saw Deer, Monkey, and one splendid Fireback 
Pheasant. We reached the Sapugaya River shortly before 
twelve noon, and were disappointed at finding the tide out and 
our boat high and dry; we waited patiently until half-past four, 
but as there was still no sign of a return of the water we deter- 
mined to try and carry the boat down until water sufficient to 
float her was met with; this we eventually succeeded in doing, 
our Chinese cook greatly distinguishing himself on this occasion, 
although a remarkably thin and weedy-looking individual. As 
luck would have it, he had one end of a pole slung across the 
boat, and the strongest Sulu, a fine strapping young fellow, the 
other. They placed the pole in position; up went the Chinaman, 
down went the Sulu; the Sulu got up looking very fierce, rubbed 
his shoulder, set his teeth, and tried again, with the same result; 
we soon found that our opium-smoking Celestial was more than 
a match for any of our men at lifting. Just at dusk we reached 
our steam-launch. Several of that very peculiar animal, the 
Galeopithecus, were floating from tree to tree, and a very 
large Bat was flying about. We soon got up steam, and at 
10.30 p.m. reached the pier at Elopura. 
