IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



the ends of a bamboo pole resting on the shoulders ; the latter carried 

 their loads on their backs, secured with bands of bark passing under 

 the package and over the head of the bearer. 



The road from the landing place on the river to the village of 

 Marop — about an hour distant — is one of the best I came across in 

 vSarawak. One might even drive a light buggy or dog-cart over it, 

 were such a conveyance known in these parts. I was delighted to 

 see on the way that the primeval forest had not been all cleared 

 away, and that there were places where it was evidently intact. 

 It had, indeed, not a very vigorous aspect, but it looked different 

 from that I was already acquainted with, which made me look for- 

 ward to the possibility of rinding some novelties. Meanwhile 

 I came across a Dipodium (P. B. No. 3,256), a ground orchid, with 

 fair-sized, slightly perfumed flowers of a milk-white colour, 

 covered with vinaceous blotches. 



Marop is a Chinese village, placed in a small valley surrounded 

 by low hills. The stream from which it takes its name runs through 

 it, supplying an abundance of cool limpid water, and giving off a 

 minor torrent which dashes merrily amidst the houses. The 

 village was very clean ; most of the houses were made with mats or 

 palm leaves, but the big house, or residence of the Kunsi, the head- 

 man of the Chinese, in which I took up my quarters, was almost 

 entirely built of wood. My lodgings were on a spacious platform 

 forming a kind of first floor, where I made myself fairly comfortable, 

 having ample room for my big and cumbrous cases. 



I was impatient to explore the country ; and as soon as I had 

 seen my luggage safely housed, I made an excursion up the nearest 

 hill, where I at once fell in with a troop of red-haired monkeys 

 (Semnopithecus rubicundus), a fine species I had not met with before, 

 as, like the orang-utan, it is not found in the neighbourhood of 

 Kuching. In the afternoon I went up the Batu Lanko, the highest 

 hill in the neighbourhood, though it hardly reaches the elevation 

 of 300 feet. It owes its name to an enormous block of granite 

 raised on other similar masses, so as to form a sort of cave or shelter 

 (" batu "= stone, " lanko " =hut). On the slopes of this granite 

 hill I found layers of clay, evidently alluvial, with traces of gold. 

 The spot was then abandoned, but from the disturbed condition of 

 the surface over a large area it was plain that very active gold 

 washing had gone on there not long before. The system followed 

 is the usual one — that of washing the auriferous deposit in a stream 

 of running water canalised so as to lead into successive flat pans 

 or basins at decreasing levels, where the gold particles, on account 

 of their greater specific gravity, remain, whilst the earthy and other 

 lighter materials are washed away by the running water. 



I extended my walk to Ruma Ajjit, a Dyak village, situated 

 on the crest of a steep hill. Ajjit — for such was the name of the head- 



142 



