1 86 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. ix. 



made here, but I noted nothing among them different to 

 those of the north-west coast. 



"When Mr. Pryer first came to live here the natives had 

 annoyed him a good deal by coming below the house at 

 night and stealing rice. This they did by making a hole 

 through the bags with a spear, so that the rice ran through 

 the interstices of the lath floor, and was caught in a vessel 

 held below for that purpose. One day, however, a toler- 

 ably large and healthy alligator was brought in for sale, 

 and with the eye of a naturalist, Mr. Pryer at once saw 

 his chance. The ugly creature was purchased and con- 

 fined beneath the house, and it is needless to add that 

 the nocturnal pilfering in that direction was immediately 

 discontinued. Alligators of enormous dimensions are 

 said to be very common here, but we had to be satisfied 

 with a glimpse of a shark in the bay. Elephants are said 

 to come down to the banks of the Sagaliad river, and a 

 young rhinoceros was actually shot there a few months 

 only after the time of our visit. Having borrowed a boat 

 and obtained a native crew we landed on two of the islands 

 in the bay, and found them equally barren. The only 

 plants of interest we noticed were one or two species of 

 palms, which I had not seen elsewhere, and of one of 

 these I obtained a large quantity of seeds. We saw 

 plenty of curlew, and large flocks of milk white cranes or 

 " padi birds," rested on the trees near the shore. It was 

 nearly dusk when we returned to the ship, and being wet 

 and dirty, as one almost invariably is on exploring tours 

 in the forest and jungle, we were glad to visit the little 

 bath-house once more, and change our clothes before 

 dinner on the cool upper deck of the little steamer. 



At daybreak I was awoke by the rattling of the chains 

 as the anchor was weighed, and in a few minutes after- 

 wards Sandakan was behind us as we steamed away to 



