April 23, 1897.] 



SGIENGE. 



641 



The rain and fog and the resulting hu- 

 midity were very annoying, as the specimens 

 dried at the fire when taken away, imme- 

 diately became wet again. "The orangutans 

 amused themselves by swinging in the tree 

 tops over our heads." From the isolated 

 peak of Kenepai the view was beautiful and 

 ■disclosed here and there in the forest-covered 

 plain the waters of the Kapuas and Kenepai 

 stretching out into a chain of lakes ; on the 

 north Mt. Tutup reared its head, its foot hills 

 forming the southern boundary of Sarawak. 



Eeturning to Smitau in February, 1894, 

 the specimens were prepared for shipment, 

 and at the end of the month a new start 

 was made for the Mandai river, one of the 

 principal tributaries of the upper Kapuas, 

 and having its source in a great group of 

 mountains, which sends out the Mandai and 

 the Melawi on the west, the Barito on the 

 south, and the southern tributaries of the 

 Mahakkam, on the east coast. Ascending 

 tlie Kapuas to the mouth of the Mandai, 

 the journey was pursued in small boats, 

 through a flat, uninteresting and tiresome 

 country, until the rapids were reached. 



At Nanga-Kaun, the next stopping place, 

 reached in five days, they built a roomy hut. 

 In that mountainous region, Herr Biit- 

 tikofer chose for exploration Mt. Liang- 

 kubung. About 2,500 feet up its side he 

 camped in one of the dry grottoes, inhabited 

 by large numbers of the native Punans, 

 and there remained from the 10th of March 

 to the beginning of May, 1894. 



The hunting, while rough and tiresome, 

 gave excellent results, and many new speci- 

 mens were procured, such as the Scmrus 

 whiteheadi and the Calyptomena hosei, hereto- 

 fore only known in north Borneo. Fresh 

 foot prints of the rhinoceros were also seen ; 

 on the summit the only evidence of life in 

 the grave-like silence was the forest blood- 

 leech, the pest of the mountain climber 

 in Borneo, which fell upon them murder- 

 ously. 



Returning to Poetoes Sibau on the 5th of 

 May, Biittikofer and party went up the 

 Sibau as far as Poelau, the only settlement 

 in the whole Sibau valley, and again re- 

 turning to Poetoes Sibau, joined Dr. Nieu- 

 wenhuis and Professor Molengraaf in the 

 journey to the Mahakkam region. Con- 

 cluding his resume of the various journeys 

 he remarks : "I confined my work to the 

 region of the upper Kapuas, under the 

 equator, because of the isolation of the dis- 

 trict and the ignorance concerning it, and 

 as a result I lack many specimens of species 

 belonging to the coast." 



The mammalia and birds of Borneo can 

 best be compared with those of the known 

 islands of the East Indian archipelago, and 

 I have, therefore, few new specimens, al- 

 though working in an entirely unknown re- 

 gion. This demonstrates that the fauna of 

 the Kapuas region is identical with the 

 Sarawak and upper Borneo. I am of the 

 opinion, as a result of my observation, that 

 the lateral diffusion of animals is of much 

 greater interest than the altitudinal, and 

 that this observation can be used to illus- 

 trate the speculative theory of the eleva- 

 tion and depression of the Malay archipelago 

 and the island of Sundain. 



WhQe Borneo, from a zoo-geographical 

 point of view, resembles Java and Sumatra 

 and the adjacent islands, as well as the 

 peninsula of Malacca, it nevertheless shows 

 a constant tendency to deviate. For a good 

 classification of the mammalia of Borneo we 

 have to thank an Englishman, Mr. Chas. 

 Hose, who gives 146 species, of which he 

 has collected the greater part. The number 

 found by me in the Kapuas region is about 

 66, divided as follows : Apes and Lemurs 

 12, Bats 18, Insectivora 10, Carnivora 7, 

 Eodents 13, Artiodactyls 3, Perissodactyls 

 2, Edentates 1. 



Among the mammalia the greatest inter- 

 est centers on the orangutan, which is met 

 with in the mountain region dividing Dutch 



