CHAPTER XIII 



Start for the Kapuas Lakes — Dyak Gallantry — On the River Kantu 

 — Native Tobacco Manufacture — Carding and Spinning Cotton- 

 Brass Workers — Curious Fishery — Rains and Floods — Trial by 

 Water — Ancient Jars — Flooded-out Insects — Down the Kantu 

 again — Navigation in the Forest — In the Umpanang — Strange 

 Fishes — Black Water — On the Lakes — The Formation of Coal 

 in Borneo — On the Lampei Hill — Lake Plants — Hungry Dogs — ■ 

 Journey Back — Botanical Results of the Excursion — Dyak 

 Names — Freshwater Alg.e — Orchard Herbs at Marop — Good 

 Cattle Food. 



ON the seventh of May I had decided to start at early morn 

 for the Kapuas lake, but the rain came down in torrents. 

 If one wants to travel in Borneo one must not mind rain, but it 

 is unpleasant to make a start under such conditions, and especially 

 for the botanist, who is obliged to carry loads of paper for pre- 

 serving plants, and, what is more, must keep it dry. About noon 

 the sun came out, and although the weather was far from being 

 settled I made up my mind to be off. 



I had with me a party of ten men — two Malays, one Chinaman 

 (the cook), and seven Dyaks to carry the luggage, which was rather 

 heavy owing to the botanical paper. I had not been able to engage 

 any more men at Marop, and accordingly my men had heavy loads, 

 and we got along rather slowly. We had several times to cross the 

 Marop stream, whose waters were now full and deep. Near Kumpang 

 the rain, which had been threatening for some time, began to fall 

 again with the usual tropical violence. I had already been in this 

 neighbourhood, during one of my excursions from Marop, to visit 

 the gold washings, which I had been told the Chinese had re- 

 newed. At Kumpang the precious metal is found in the alluvium 

 which forms the low hills on the slopes of TiangLaju. The surface 

 layer for the thickness of some three feet is clay and earth ; then 

 comes a stratum of big pebbles and rounded boulders, evidently rolled 

 and water-worn, in a matrix of bluish clay. It is in washing this 

 clay that gold is met with, either in the shape of nuggets or in large 

 grains. 



We proceeded rapidly, not meeting with anything interesting 

 except a Nepenthes belonging to a species which I bad not yet got. 

 But I have invariably avoided collecting specimens at the beginning 

 of an excursion — not always a good rule, perhaps, as will be seen in 

 the sequel — and so I merely marked the place, intending to take 



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