158 EAMBLE8 OF A NATUEALIST. [Ch. X. 



Weil-proportioned trees, on the verge of which the axes of 

 the woodcutters reverberated most musically in the dark 

 forest depths ; the loud chirp of the cicadas, and the pro- 

 longed hum or whistle of numerous beetles and other insects, 

 formed a pleasing accompaniment. Giant camphor trees 

 (Dryobalanops camphora), Dammar, and other trees, rose 

 straight and erect to the height of from 150 to 200 feet, 

 clothed with foliage, or standing dead and dry in the cleared 

 spots, or sometimes stretched at length upon the ground in 

 wild confusion. The mere stumps were objects of wonder 

 for their massiveness, with enormous wings or buttresses, 

 which required long days of hewing to separate them from 

 their iron-hard roots, which could be traced tortuously 

 winding through the soil for sixty yards from the tree, and 

 even at that distance were as thick as a man's thigh. Hard, 

 close-grained, solid timber lay there in profusion, piled trunk 

 over trunk, the greater part requiring to be slowly and 

 laboriously burned before it could be finally removed ; while 

 the tan standing trunks aU round towered up sombre and 

 solemn, awaiting the doom of the axe. Nowhere have I 

 seen such glorious jungle as in this part of the island of 

 Labuan. 



Many trees of the jungle belong to the natural family of 

 the Dipterocarpese, a family remarkable for beautiful flowers 

 no less than for their majestic size, erect trunks, and fine 

 dense foliage ; and not a few yield some kind of balsamic 

 resin. The form it assumes in the Dryobalanops, or Su- 

 matra camphor tree, is that of concretions in the crevices 

 and fissures of the wood, so that it can only be obtained by 

 cutting down the tree, which, inasmuch as they are often 

 90 feet high, without a branch, is no small labour. "When 

 felled, the trunk is hewn in pieces, and the camphor found 



