76 BRITISH BORNEO. 
been reported even on Kinabalu, and I am informed that the 
Charles Louis Mountains in Dutch New Guinea, are the only 
ones in tropical Asia where the limit of perpetual snow is 
attained. I must stop to say a word in praise of Kinabalu, 
“the Chinese Widow,’’* the sacred mountain of North Bor- 
neo whither the souls of the righteous Dusuns ascend after 
death. It can be seen from both coasts, and appears to read 
its isolated, solid bulk almost straight out of the level country, 
so dwarfed are the neighbouring hills by its height of 13,680 
feet. The best view of it is obtained, either at sunrise or at 
sunset, from the deck of a ship proceeding along the West 
Coast, from which it is about twenty miles inland. During 
the day time the Widow, asa rule, modestly veils her features 
in the clouds. 
The effect when its huge mass is lighted up at evening by 
the last rays of the setting sun is truly magnificent. 
On the spurs of Kinabalu and on the other lofty hills, of 
which there is an abundance, no doubt, as the country be- 
comes opened up by roads many suitable sites for sanitoria 
will be discovered, and the day will come when these hill sides, 
like those of Ceylon and Java, will be covered with thriving 
plantations. 
Failing winter, the Bornean has to be content with the 
the change afforded by a dry and a wet season, the latter be- 
ing looked upon as the ‘winter,’ and prevailing during the 
month of November, December and January. But though 
the two seasons are sufficiently well defined and to be de- 
pended upon by planters, yet there is never a month during 
the dry season when no rain falls, nor in the wet season are 
fine days at all rare. The dryest months appear to be March 
and April, and in June there generally occurs what Doctor 
WALKER terms an “ intermediate” and moderately wet pe- 
riod. 
Tobacco is a crop which yields quick returns, for in about 
110 to 120 days afrer the seed is sown the plant is ripe for 
cutting. Lhe modus operandi is somewhat after this fashion. 
First select your land, virgin soil covered with untouched 
* For the native derivation of this appellation see page 66 of Journal No. 20, 
