BRITISH BORNEO. > 
vation, and has informed me that he confidently expects to 
rival Sumatra, not only in quality, but also in quantity of leaf 
per acre, as some of his men have cut twelve pikuls per field, 
whereas six pikuls per field is usually considered a good crop. 
The question of ‘“‘ quantity” is a very important one, for qua- 
lity without quantity will never pay on a_ tobacco estate. 
Several Dutchmen have followed Count GELOES’ example, and 
two German Companies and one British are now at work in 
the country. Altogether, fully 350,000 acres* of land have 
been taken up for tobacco cultivation in British North Borneo 
up to the present time. 
In selecting land for this crop, climate, that is, temperature 
and rainfall, has equally to be considered with richness of soil. 
For example, the soil of Java is as rich, or richer than that of 
Sumatra, but owing to.its much smaller rainfall, the tobacco 
it produces commands nothing like the prices fetched by that 
of the former. The seasons and rainfall in Borneo are found 
to be very similar to those of Sumatra. The average recorded 
annual rainfall at Sandakan for the last seven years is given 
by Dr. WALKER, the Principal Medical Officer, as 124.34 
inches, the range being from 156.9 to 101.26 inches per 
annum. 
Being so near the equator, roughly speaking between N. 
Latitudes 4 and 7, North Borneo has, unfortunately for the 
European residents whose lot is cast there, nothing that can 
be called a winter, the temperature remaining much about the 
same from year’s end to year’s end. It used to seem to me 
that during the day the thermometer was generally about 83 
or 85 in the shade, but, I believe, taking the year all round, 
night and day, the mean temperature is 81, and the extremes 
recorded on the coast line are 67.5 and 94.5. Dr. WALKER 
has not yet extended his stations to the hills in the interior, 
but mentions it as probable that freezing point is occasionally 
reached near the top of the Kinabalu Mountains, which is 
13,700 feet high ; he adds that the lowest recorded tempera- 
ture he has PS a is 36.5, given by Sir SPENCER. ST. JOHN in 
his “Life in the Forests of the Far East.’ Snow has’ never 
* Governor CREAGH tells me 600,000 acres have now been taken up. 
