4 NATURE 
[Nov. 3. 188% 
Mr. Bock was at first inclined to attribute this pheno- 
menal region to volcanic agency; but, considering that 
no earthquakes or volcanic phenomena occur throughout 
Borneo, and that these rocks are all “a rubbly limestone,” 
he concludes that they owe their origin to “the denuding 
force of the torrential tropical rains, which have gradually 
bared the limestone deposit.” This however is a very 
lame conclusion, and in no way accounts for the extra- 
ordinary way in which the rocks have been fractured and 
heaped over each other. The only sufficient explanation 
is to be found in the action of subterranean waters dis- 
solving away the limestone rock and thus forming exten- 
sive caverns, the roofs of which have at length fallen in 
over a large area, and thus produced the unmistakable 
appearances of violent upheaval and fracture. This 
phenomenon is however very rare on so extensive a scale, 
and, so far as we can recollect, this Bornean “ field of 
stones’’ is almost unique. The nature of the surrounding 
country is not described, but the locality appears to be a 
low and nearly level watershed between the lateral tribu- 
taries of two great river systems, so that there might be a 
subterranean drainage in two directions. In many other 
parts of Borneo there are indications of long-continued 
denudation, and it may be that the very absence of vol- 
canic phenomena, and the consequent stability of the 
surface for long periods, has rendered possible the 
amount of uninterrupted subterranean denudation re- 
quired to produce this mimic representation of great 
volcanic convulsions. 
Mr. Bock gives us a pretty full account of the Dyak 
tribes of Southern Borneo and all that he could learn 
about them, and the general impression of his descriptions, 
aided by his life-like portraits and domestic scenes, is, that 
there is a wonderful similarity between all the chief tribes 
of this great island both in physical and mental charac- 
teristics, though there are many specialities in habits. In 
the south we find a decided indication of Pacific influence 
in the general practice of tattooing, in the custom of omali 
or “taboo,” and perhaps even in the practice of canni- 
balism by one tribe—the Tring Dyaks. In the south, 
too, the use of the blow-tube seems to be almost universal, 
whereas it is comparatively rare in the north ; but in their 
general character and habits, customs, ideas, and super- 
stitions, there is a practical identity which renders much 
of Mr. Bock’s volume a repetition of what has been more 
fully and accurately described by St. John, Grant, and 
other writers. 
We may however note a few of the more novel or | 
interesting facts recorded Mr. Bock never saw an 
Orang-utan, so that this animal is evidently far less 
abundant in the southern than in the north-western parts 
of the island. He describes the effects of a great drought 
in 1878—a year before his visit—which destroyed the 
forest-trees over large areas and caused the destruction of 
birds and game, and the failure of crops, to such an extent 
as to cause a famine, and this on the equator in an area 
of dense forest where rains are usually of almost constant 
occurrence. Almost the only amusing episode in the 
book is the account of an earnest attempt to discover the 
much-talked-of “tailed men” of Borneo. Tjiropon, an 
old and faithful servant of the Sultan of Koti, declared, in 
the Sultan’s presence, that he himself had seen some of 
these people in the Passir country. He called them 
| their nests as much as possible.” 
| illustrations however furnish the real vazson a’étre of ‘thi 
“Orang-bontoet,” or tailed men, and added the usual 
statement, that the tail was from two to four inches long, 
and that the people cut holes in the floor to receive it, se 
that they could sit down comfortably ! Mr. Bock thought 
this so absurd that he disbelieved the whole story, but the 
Sultan of Koti was greatly impressed by it, and it was 
decided to despatch Tjiropon on anembassy to the Sultan 
of Passir with a letter requesting him to send by ‘the 
bearer two of the “ Orang-bontoet.” After a long absence 
he returned, and met the party at Banjermassin as 
agreed; but he was very crestfallen, and would say 
nothing except that he had delivered the letter, and had 
not been able to procure any tailed men. Thereupon the 
Resident of Banjermassin, at Mr. Bock’s request, himself 
sent a party to Passir with a letter to the Sultan, request- 
ing him to say if there really were any tailed men in his 
country, and what had happened to the former messenger. 
After twenty-five days’ absence the party returned, with a 
message from the Sultan of Passir explaining the whole 
matter. It appears that the Sultan’s personal attendants 
are known by the term “ Orang-boentoet di Sultan di 
Passir’’—literally “the tail-people of the Sultan of 
Passir..’ The Sultan declared he had never heard of 
any other “ orang-bontoet.” He was very angry at two 
of his suite being so unceremoniously asked for, and 
ordered the messenger to depart instantly on pain of 
being flogged—a threatened indignity which sufficiently 
accounted for poor Tjiropon’s silence. When again 
spoken to, however, he exclaimed,—“ Before Allah! J 
have seen the Orarg-bontoet long ago, and have spoken 
to them, but I could not see them this time.” 
Among the few natural-history facts noted, are, the con- 
spicuousness of the wild bees’ nests “at variance with 
the almost universal habit among all animals to conceal 
But these nests evi- 
dently come under the category of objects which exhibi 
warning colours, being sufficiently protected by the stinz: 
of their inhabitants. The remarkable tenacity of life of 
the Loris tardigradus is well illustrated in the followin 
passage :— 
“One day I wounded one, and knowing its tenacity of 
life I strangled the little animal, then cut it open and 
pierced its heart. An hour elapsed before I waited .ta 
skin it, and when I took down the body I found it still 
alive, its lovely eyes wide open. When, hoping ta 
finally despatch it, I pierced its brain with a needle, if 
began to shriek, and still some minutes elapsed before if 
was actually gone.” 
An equal tenacity of life is found in the allied Galeo: 
pithecus, which could be killed neither by breaking thé 
spine nor piercing the brain, and it is not improbableé 
that the continued survival of these very anci2nt types it 
the midst of higher forms may be in part due to this 
extreme power of endurance. 
The journal of the Sumatra expedition contains little w 
importance, and all that is new or valuable in the volumt 
might have been well compressed into a couple of maga 
zine articles or papers for the Geographical Society. Thi 
book; and besides the portraits of natives already 
ferred to, attention may be called to the plate “Crossing 
the River Benangan,” which gives the very best and mos 
accurate idea of an equatorial forest that the presen 
writer has ever met with. ALFRED R, WALLACE | 
