IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



The Mattang mountain, which I could see clothed in its mantle 

 of green each day from our verandah, was an irresistible attraction 

 to me, and I decided to climb its heights as soon as possible. The 

 Tuan Muda told me that it was no easy task, as in that direction 

 no pathway led through the forest, which was stated to extend for 

 nearly ten miles over low and marshy land, and thus to be most 

 difficult to cross. At the time we did not know that by following 

 certain winding estuaries hidden amongst the mangroves it was 

 possible to reach the foot of the mountain in a canoe. I 

 had suggested to the Tuan Muda to have a pathway laid down 

 by Dyaks. Meanwhile, on the morning of July 9th, with Tuan-ku 

 Yassim and a few Malays, I decided to attempt to explore the 

 forest beyond Siul. We only took our guns and provisions for a 

 meal in the forest. I had already several times travelled the road 

 between Kuching and Siul, and was pretty certain that no important 

 novelty could cause me to delay on the way. But beyond Siul all 

 was unknown country, not only to me, but also to the Tuan-ku, 

 although he lived so near. 



We rounded Siul — at whose foot, in several places, the forest had 

 been thinned, and a fine tree-fern, Alsophila contaminans, had 

 multiplied — -but we soon entered the primeval forest, and then, 

 compass in hand, made our way towards the Mattang mountains, 

 steering for the higher peak, the bearing of which I got by sending 

 one of my men to the top of a tree. The forest could hardly have 

 been wilder and denser. It is possible that Malays or Dyaks had 

 previously gone into it in search of gutta-percha or rotangs, but 

 no trace of any path could be seen, nor that human feet had ever 

 trodden its soil. Even the Malays, however, rarely attempt to pene- 

 trate the primeval forest beyond a mile or two from the river banks. 

 The ground was at first rising and dry, and the spaces between the 

 forest giants were covered with young specimens of these big trees, 

 and by an immense and varied host of other plants which could not 

 emulate the latter in the struggle for existence. On the ground lay 

 enormous prostrate trunks which in a few years, or, it may be, in 

 a few months, were once more to give back to the soil that w r hich 

 during hundreds of years they had taken from it. In such a forest 

 our progress was very slow ; obstacles had to be avoided, and we 

 had to cut our way through with parangs. I had early laid aside 

 my European hunting-knife, and had adopted this very handy 

 Malay weapon, which is indeed invaluable in forest travelling. W T e 

 cut steadily through the intricate mass of vegetation which barred 

 our way, the worst obstacle being the thorny leaves of the Calami 

 (rotangs), with their whip-like appendages covered with hooked 

 spines destructive alike to our skin and dress. In addition to 

 cutting down the bushes and such like, one takes the precaution of 

 bending them down in the direction to be followed — a simple plan of 



