IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



this little rocky island was completely clothed, especially on its 

 upper portion, by a handsome palm, whose enormous racemes 

 loaded with flowers and fruits looked like small Cypress trees 

 protruding from the midst of crowns of sago-palm fronds. It is 

 undoubtedly a species of Eugeissonia, which, although I was unable 

 to examine it more closely, I consider identical with one I subse- 

 quently found on the banks of the Rejang and at Brunei. As it 

 is a useful plant from which good feculum can be extracted, I should 

 not be surprised if orginally its seeds had been brought to the island 

 by Dyaks. Borneo, forming the very centre of the area of their past 

 piratical expeditions, may have been used by them as a victualling 

 station. A little before sunset we passed the small island which 

 stands in the middle of the mouth of the Batang Lupar. When 

 the sun dipped below the horizon, darkness came on very suddenly ; 

 but the night was clear, and our captain being well acquainted 

 with the soundings, we continued our way up stream. At 9 p.m. 

 we had reached our goal, the old fort of Lingga, once the residence 

 of the Tuan Muda, and now completely abandoned. It is placed 

 on the right bank, near the mouth of the Lingga river, the first 

 affluent to be met with on the right, ascending the main stream. 

 As mv boat had not yet arrived, I had my luggage taken into the 

 fort — a low wooden building, hidden amidst coconuts and fruit trees. 

 All around the soil was swampy and honeycombed by hosts of 

 crustaceans, which make myriads of little hillocks with the earth 

 extracted from the burrows in which they live. 



The next day, my boat still not having arrived, I took my gun 

 and explored the neighbourhood. I was able to shoot several 

 species of birds which I had not met with before ; amongst them 

 was Lalage tcrat, Cass., a bird which, in flight and size, is somewhat 

 like a swallow. It has the habit of taking a few rapid turns in the 

 air and then perching on the extremity of a bare branch of one of 

 the trees growing on the banks of the river. 



On the opposite side of the Lingga river the land is low, and was in 

 former times occupied by rice fields, but at the period of my visit 

 was overrun with a large kind of grass, a species of Ischcemum, 

 which forms immense meadows, pleasant to see at a distance, but 

 in which walking would be impossible, for it reaches a height of 

 some eight or ten feet. Moreover, the soil underneath is a morass, 

 and one would sink up to the knees in mud and slush. The mosqui- 

 toes thrive by the legion, and render life intolerable. 



On the nineteenthof March I left Linggafort before the tide flowed, 

 but awaited the tidal wave at the mouth of the Sungei Batu, another 

 affluent of the Batang Lupar, where, in a safe position, I was able to 

 observe the curious effect that this produces in the shallower parts, 

 where, instead of the ordinary bore, the water -appears violently 

 agitated in disordered movements, and seems as if it were boiling 



138 



