Reviews — Dr. Molengraaff^s Central Borneo. 169 



separates it from Sarawak, and towards the south are the Muller 

 mountains, the elevated Madi plateau, and the Schwaner range, 

 which forms the division between it and South Borneo. 



The river Kapoewas forms the main highway of communication, 

 and from villages and stations on its banks the author -obtained 

 native boats and helpers, with which he made the ascent of the 

 various tributaries as far as practicable, and when the streams no 

 longer served, the land-route to the mountain ranges and peaks had 

 to be resorted to. But in a country of tropical forest growth such 

 as Borneo it is next to impossible to perform any long journeys on 

 foot ; the native Dyak footpaths through the forest — the only land 

 communication — are merely narrow tracks, just wide enough for 

 a single man ; they follow a nearly straight course, breasting steep 

 hills and scaling the sides of mountains without a zigzag ; they are 

 not diverted by morasses or streams, deep gorges are simply bridged 

 over by trunks of trees, and the only obstacles they bend round are 

 lofty forest trees. As a consequence, land travel is very fatiguing 

 to Europeans. Nor is the journey by boat up the streams in Borneo 

 without its dangers and difficulties, mainly caused by the frequent 

 waterfalls and rapids, where ledges of hard rock cross the river bed 

 and necessitate unloading and a portage ; the streams, moreover, 

 are liable to sudden and dangerous spates. 



Dr. Molengraaff found that the lines of dislocation of the rocks in 

 the Upper Kapoewas territory followed a generally east and west 

 trend, and this led him to infer that by taking a route from north to 

 south a continuous geological section from the boundary of Sarawak 

 on the north, right across Dutch Borneo to the Java Sea, might be 

 observed. This course was adopted on his return journey, and, 

 starting from Boenoet on the Kapoewas, he travelled southward, 

 crossed the Madi plateau, and, reaching the Schwaner range, made 

 the ascent of Mount Raja,, one of the highest peaks (2,278 metres). 

 At Mount Boenjau the water-parting between West and South 

 Borneo was crossed, and descending the Menjoekoet river to its 

 junction with the Samba river, and thence by the great river 

 Katingan, he reached Pegattan, close to the coast, on the 

 28th October, 1894, and four days afterwards arrived at Bandjer- 

 massin by sea. The journey down-stream of 300 miles (not 

 counting river curves) was accomplished in a fortnight. The 

 territory traversed by this southern route was absolutely unexplored 

 scientifically, and the greater part of it had not previously been 

 reached by any European, so that the physical and geological 

 descriptions of it given by Dr. Molengraaff in chapters x, and xi, 

 are of the greatest interest. 



The principal end of the expedition, to ascertain the nature and 

 the relative succession of the rocks of Central Borneo, which may 

 be said to be the core of the island, has been successfully carried 

 out by the author, and from his observations we obtain for the first 

 time a satisfactory outline sketch of its geological features. The 

 oldest rocks recognized are strongly folded, amphibolite and chlorite 

 schists and quartzitic slates occurring in the hilly country near 



