Ch. Xm.] VEGETATION OF SAEA.WAK. 215 



native houses ; a preserve is made of the fruit, and salt is 

 extracted from the burnt leaves ; while the cylindrical and 

 shapely stems of the Nibong are turned into ready-made 

 posts, upon which their slight houses securely rest. 



Many useful trees also grow in the jungle, the nature of 

 which is no secret to the natives ; and dammar-resin, sago, 

 vegetable tallow, malacca-canes, rattans, ebony, camphor, 

 and rice, are among the substances which the territory of 

 Sarawak sends out in exchange for the silks, Javanese 

 handkerchiefs, European cloths. China-ware, brass wire, 

 and cooking vessels, salt, and opium, which are used or 

 consumed therein ; while to these vegetable substances, 

 accumulated by the industry of the people, must be added 

 its mineral treasures — antimony, gold, and diamonds ; and 

 certain animal productions, as birds'-nests, sharks'-lins, 

 tortoise-shell, bees' -wax, and salt-fish. 



In such a weU-wooded country there is no lack of rain, 

 which pours down in incredible torrents — of which I was a 

 witness ; and where high land aids in its formation, I can 

 have little hesitation in accepting the estimate of one who 

 by long residence was qualified to judge, that as much as 

 300 inches of rain faU annually in some parts of Borneo. 

 This, with the aid of the freshets which come down the 

 river, produces a rich alluvial soil along the banks of the 

 Sarawak and other rivers, where the most beautiful flowers 

 may be seen — sweet-smelling Clerodendrons and Bignonias, 

 beautiful Cinchonaceous plants, such as richly-coloured 

 Ixoras, purple Hoyas, and long-stamened Combretums ; 

 and a wonderful variety of those singular botanical pheno- 

 mena, the pitchers of Nepenthes. Mr. Low, who has made 

 several interesting excursions into the interior, told me that 

 on the Limbang Eiver, just north of the Sarawak country, 



