EIVEES OF BOENEO. 127 



coastlands, the Kapuas contracts to a narrow bed between two neighbouring hills, 

 beyond which it ramifies into two main branches and numerous smaller channels, 

 forming an extensive delta with a coastline of no less than 70 miles. This 

 alluvial tract projects considerably beyond the original shore-line, and according 

 to the local traditions mentioned by Temminck, has advanced several leagues sea- 

 wards during the historic period. The island of Majang, opposite the southern 

 branch of the delta, is already almost entirely connected with the mainland, while 

 the sedimentary deposits continue to encroach upon the sea still farther southward, 

 in the direction of the Karimata archipelago. The province of Pulu Petak was 

 formerly an island, as indicated by its very name, which means an island destitute 

 of all vegetation. 



The section of Borneo lying south of the equator is the most abundantly watered 

 part of the country. Here follow in rapid succession the rivers Kotaringin, Pem- 

 buan, Sampit, Katingan, Kahajan, and Barito, all, like the Kapuas, lined by 

 occasionally flooded morasses, all steadily advancing beyond the normal coastline, 

 and all presenting navigable highways far into the interior. Of these southern 

 streams the largest is the Barito or Banjer, known also by several other names in 

 the various districts through which it flows. Rising in the central nucleus of 

 highlands, it first forces its way eastwards over a series of falls and rapids, through 

 deep and almost inaccessible gorges, beyond which it winds across the plains south- 

 wards to the coast at Banjermassin. Swollen by a large number of affluents, it is 

 everywhere navigable in this section of its course, and about 60 nailes from the 

 sea ramifies into two also navigable branches, of which the eastern receives the 

 Negara and Martapura tributaries, while the western joins the Kapuas, which 

 formerly reached the coast in an independent channel. But the alluvial matter 

 brought down by both of these rivers has gradually filled in the intervening marine 

 inlet, and this eastern Kapuas has thus become a tributary of the Barito, a fate 

 which must also, sooner or later, overtake the Kahajan, or Great Dayak. 



The Barito delta has a superficial area of over 800 square miles, while 

 the trenches enclosing it east and west are, in some places, considerably over 

 half a mile wide. During the inundations the floodwaters of the Barito and 

 Kapuas intermingle, converting the intervening plains into a vast sheet of water, 

 estimated by Schwaner at no less than 13,000 square miles in extent. Like the 

 Mississippi and other large rivers flowing through low-lying tracts, the Barito 

 frequently shifts its course, forming new channels, especially at the sharp turnings, 

 and thus giving rise to shallow lagoons and backwaters, analogous to the " false 

 rivers " of the Mississippi valley. Here and there these danans, or " seas," are 

 again scoured by the recurring inundations, and uniting with other lagoons or 

 flooded meres, stretch away between their wooded banks beyond the horizon. 



In the east equatorial region the only large river is the Mahakkam, called also 

 Kutei, from the vast plain which it traverses on its south-easterly course seawards. 

 After escaping from the rugged uplands, it spreads out to the right and left in vast 

 lagoons bounded by a fringe of forests, and in some places so broad that the oppo- 

 site shores are invisible. These lacustrine basins, the remains of an ancient sea, are 



