CHAPTER X 



The Southern Branch of the Sarawak River — Diamond Washing — 

 Fossils in the Limestone — Rapids — Riverside Plants — Pankalan 

 ampat — In Search of Coal — Gunong Wa — Great Bamboos — A 

 Dyak Banquet — New Kinds of Fruit — Roads beyond the Frontier 

 — Senna — Other Fruits and Cultivated Plants — Thermal Springs 

 — Fncursions on the West Branch of the Sarawak River — The 

 Cave of the Winds, " Lobang Angin." 



WITH the flowing tide, at half-past three o'clock in the morn- 

 ing of the 15th November, I started from my head- 

 quarters at Kuching to ascend the southern branch of the Sarawak 

 river, into which flow the waters collected on the slopes of Mount 

 Pennerrissen. Beyond Lida Tana we lost the help of the tide and 

 had to take to our paddles, continuing thus till noon. After a rest to 

 cook and eat our rice, we resumed our row up the river, but as the 

 current was getting stronger and stronger we were obliged to have 

 recourse to poling. As the river was shallow, we progressed thus pretty 

 rapidly. We passed the small affluent of Sunta, where we found 

 a few Malays engaged in washing for diamonds. At three o'clock 

 in the afternoon we reached the village of Koom. Here, in addition 

 to a number of Malays, I met an Englishman who, commissioned 

 by the " Borneo Company," was trying his luck with diamonds, 

 using a big boat provided with a curious spoon-shaped dredge, with 

 which sand and pebbles from the bottom were brought up and 

 carefully sifted and searched for diamonds. 



The Malays wash for diamonds in the same way as for gold, 

 using circular wooden trays (dulang) with a wide conical concavity 

 and measuring some two feet in diameter. The earth and fine 

 gravel or sand is placed in the tray, to which a slight rotating 

 movement is given as it is dipped from time to time in the running 

 water. In this manner the dirt and lighter particles are washed 

 away, and the heavier ones, such as particles of metal, or precious 

 stones, remain at the bottom in the central conical depression. 

 The diamonds found at Koom and elsewhere on the Sarawak river 

 are rarely of very pure water, and are mostly tinged with yellow. 

 Some that I saw had a decided reddish tint, a variety much appre- 

 ciated in the country when the gem is not too small. The 

 diamonds I saw were of very variable shapes : some were perfect 



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