364 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



A small railway runs out three miles from the right bank 

 to a neighbouring hill, where coal has been worked since 

 Wallace's day. We walked out in the evening and met the 

 manager. He had kindly made enquiries for me of the oldest 

 inhabitants, but none remembered Wallace. It was interest- 

 ing, however, to hear that someone had heard a mias (Orang 

 Utan, Simia satyrus) that very morning near by. The writer 

 had the privilege of meeting the great naturalist at Broadstone 

 just a year before his death ; one of the first things he asked 

 was about the numbers of the mias to be seen at Sadong now. 

 Dr. Wallace told me he used to meet with three or four, or more, 

 every day. Nowadays they are very much scarcer, though a 

 strict Government Order is now in force to prevent their 

 extermination. It occasionally happens that one of these huge 

 apes starts ravaging the natives' fruit trees, and then the 

 Government does not prohibit retaliation ; but on no account 

 may the Orang Utan be hunted in his natural haunts. A more 

 recent Order extends a wide protection over the fauna and flora 

 of Sarawak in general, so that the naturalist-dealer and would- 

 be exporter of thousands finds he has come to the wrong country. 

 As a result of this protection one can follow up the Simunjan 

 river and find in the upper reaches troupes of the curious Long- 

 nosed Monkey (Nasalis larvatus) (which, by the way, is only 

 found in Borneo) disporting themselves unconcernedly on the 

 banks, and little disturbed by the passing of a boat within a few 

 yards of them. 



Next day we waited for the incoming tide before starting up- 

 river in boats. At this time of the month a fairly large bore 

 comes rushing up the river, swamping any unwary boats. The 

 neighbouring river, called the Batang Lupar, also has a dan- 

 gerous bore, but others in Sarawak are free from this curious 

 wave. 



The Resident, the Native Officer (a Malay Hadji), and a 

 policeman helped to swell our numbers, their objective being 

 the Land-Dayak country in the Upper Sadong, to collect the 

 annual tax. 



Paddling for some six hours brought us to the small Malay 

 village of Gedong, where we stayed the night. About the only 

 frequent sign of life was the big Nymphaline butterfly Parthenos 



