xvm] IRON ORE 



for cotton cloth, glass Venetian beads, and especially for gongs and 

 thick brass wire, which are highly valued by them. Elephant tusks 

 are also articles of very great value in their eyes, one being worth a 

 very large sum. Perhaps this ivory is not an importation, but the 

 produce of elephants run wild, small herds of which are said to roam 

 in the northern portion of the island. Nipa salt is also in high 

 estimation, but less so than amongst tribes who live farther from the 

 sea. 



I must say that the reception given me by the Tubao Kayans 

 could not have been more friendly ; but I was beginning to wish to 

 get away from their never-ending visits and everlasting queries, 

 queries which I had often answered for the hundredth time. For 

 every newly arrived Kay an must at once visit the " Orang puti," 

 who had, nolens volens, become the lion of the district, and every 

 fresh arrival wanted to see my strange things and ply me with 

 interrogations on them and their uses. I was, therefore, not sorry 

 when my provisions were nearly at an end, and the time came for me 

 to return to Bintulu. To complete the object of my trip to Tubao, 

 however, I still had to secure specimens of the iron ore, and, 

 if possible, see it in situ. I had gathered reliable information on 

 the subject, and had also found two Kayans who offered to guide 

 me to the place where the ore was obtained. Accordingly we left 

 Kam Laksa's house early on the morning of the 28th, the 

 two Kayans following in a small boat. Descending the Tubao, we 

 soon came to an affluent, where I left the sampan with my men and 

 got into the Kayans' boat, the former being too heavy for the ascent 

 of the affluent, which is named the Pusso, and is said to be navigable 

 for two days. We had not, however, very far to go, and after two 

 hours' paddling landed on the left bank of the stream. About a 

 quarter of an hour's walk through a jungle of secondary growth took 

 us to a brook with very turbid water, and here the two Kayans, 

 searching in the mud of the bottom, produced several concretions 

 very like roots or rhizomes in shape, from three to six inches in 

 length, and as thick as one's finger. They were crooked and warty, 

 and externally of a brown colour, but on being broken they showed 

 a radiated silvery fracture. Evidently they were concretions of 

 carbonate of iron. This is the ore from which the Kayans extract 

 the iron with which they make their weapons. I regret to say I 

 did not see the process of extraction. 



Amongst the few animals collected during this excursion I must 

 mention a big toad, which lives on trees along the rivers and has a 

 loud and singularly cadenced cry, " Cok-cok-ko-go" which is heard 

 usually at night. The species, according to my men, is also found 

 in the Sarawak river. Unfortunately, my specimen was lost along 

 with other interesting animals collected during this trip, and I never 

 afterwards got another one. I also found two new palms : one a 



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