238 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



vegetation of the banks ; while bushy Sterculiaceous trees 

 made a greater show of colour in the rich pink of their young 

 foliage and in the bright scarlet of their fruits than in their 

 inconspicuous flowers. Between these more outstanding trees,, 

 dark-foliaged figs and slender bamboos gracefully bending over, 

 the bank, filled up the ranks shoulder to shoulder. Tall Sialang 

 trees, with lightning-conductor-like stairs up their white stems, 

 by which the wild bees' nests are reached, and the Pangiums 

 bearing 600 to 700 brown velvety fruits each several pounds 

 in weight, so that one marvels that the branches are able to 

 sustain the load — ^marked the vicinity of villages. Here and 

 there a stately tree which had been left unmolested in their 

 fields exhibited the grandeur of stem and crown that an 

 Ancient of the forest can attain unto. Every lifeless stem, to 

 the very tips of its withered arms was festooned with dark- 

 foliaged climbers, yellow and purple Papilionaceee and Con- 

 volvulaaeee, like the grotesque shrubbery cut out of boxwood, 

 but with all the natural grace which is conspicuously wanting 

 in Dutch gardens. No tree, however, was more abundant or 

 brighter than the Lagersfraemia, whose fine red tops could be 

 seen a long way off. Every now and then a creaking sound 

 came up the water catching the ear like the subdued screech 

 of a buffalo cart, produced by the monotonous turning of a 

 large bamboo waterwheel fixed where the banks of the river 

 were high, to lift water into the adjacent rice-fields by bamboo 

 buckets fixed at intervals in a lateral direction to their paddles. 

 Water birds of many species, and kingfishers in cobalt plu- 

 mage, were constantly darting about, roused from their hunting 

 grounds by our passing, many of which were honoured with 

 a place in my collection. In addition to the ever-changing 

 forms of the vegetation and the varied bird and insect life that 

 flitted from side to side, there was no lack of human interest in 

 the scenes. Now it was a skiff with flashing oars with a 

 chattering load of women and girls with their baskets on their 

 way. to the fields ; now a village crowd in their many coloured 

 sarongs, clustered on the rocks or under the shade of some 

 broad fig to see our flotilla pass by ; here it was a patient 

 plyer of the gentle art by a rippling bend ; there a crowd of 

 women in a shingly corner in their broad sun hats and blue 

 gowns washing the sand for gold. 



