xi] MAROP 



perfect a water-ejecting apparatus to develop can only have had 

 their origin in the stimulus I have indicated, namely, a voluntary 

 act of the fish and the desire to get possession of an object which 

 was useful to it. 



The manner in which the ikan sumpit captures insects has much 

 analogy to the methods of the chameleon. In both cases we have 

 special adaptations in certain organs whose modification can only 

 have been caused through impulses of the will. It must have been 

 the wish to capture prey, and this only, that has rendered possible 

 those morphological adaptations by means of which the desire 

 could be attained. 1 



It is, however, singular that, among the numerous series of its 

 more stupid brethren, this little fish should alone have had, one far 

 remote day, at the dawn of its specific existence, the spark of genius 

 which led it to discover that spitting at a fly sitting beyond its reach 

 would cause it to fall into the water and become an easv prey. 

 It would thus appear that even in beings at present least gifted by 

 intelligence, this latter can at one time have existed anterior to 

 instinct, which in final analysis is merely an inherited form of in- 

 telligence. 



We passed Bansi,a Dyak village-house containing nineteen families. 

 The river banks continued bare and monotonous, but the mountains 

 of Marop came into view. The only interesting plant I met with 

 was a Loranthus (Beccarina xiphostachya, v. Tieghem), a magnifi- 

 cent species, parasitic upon a small tree hanging over the water, 

 and covered with beautiful rose-coloured flowers five inches in length 

 very similar to those of some of its congeners of the Andes, in which, 

 however, the flowers are even more remarkable, attaining the extra- 

 ordinary length of seven or more inches. 



After a short rest at Unggan to cook our rice, we continued our 

 ascent of the river, passing several Dyak villages. This is one of 

 the more densely populated districts of Sarawak, and at the same 

 time more cultivated, thus affording little to interest the botanist. 

 The rocks I saw, and they were but few, were invariably sandstone. 

 Towards three o'clock in the afternoon we reached the landing place 

 for Marop. I disembarked my luggage at once, and stayed in the 

 house of a Chinaman — there being quite a little Chinese village 

 here. The following day, March 22nd, I found without difficulty 

 Chinese and Dyak bearers to convey my luggage to Marop. The 

 former did so by suspending the load, divided in two portions, at 



1 The rather bold hypothesis that the will may have had a strong influence 

 in causing the assumption in animals of certain characters, has already 

 been expressed by me in a paper bearing the title, " Le Capanne ed i Giardini 

 dell' Amblyomis inornata," published in the Annali del Museo Civico di 

 Genova, vol. ix. 1876-77. 



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