76 CRUISE IN THE SOUTHERN CHINA SEA. 



began to make itself felt these ceased and the vegetation became 

 more varied with interininglings of nipahs, palms, and fruits trees. 

 Onward from here the stream — the Sungei Maras — runs up the 

 centre of a winding valley with a narrow strip of flat land at 

 the bottom and steeply rising sides. At the head of navigation — 

 and in fact when the tide was low we had to wade with our 

 dinghy for some distance, though all the way the stream was 

 broad enough to use oars — was a village of eight or ten houses 

 and a mosque, one or two of the former being of large size and 

 well built of panels of carved wood, though now old. 



In the valley we got specimens of the parrots at last as they 

 fed in the fruit trees bordering the river, and also a lovely little 

 two-toed kingfisher (Geyx rufidorsa) with coral red beak and 

 feet, yellow breast and brick red head and back that were tinged 

 with a beautiful glossy lilac: the best of the bag however were 

 specimens of a big squirrel {Eatufa anambce sp. nov.) black above 

 with tawny yellow ^cheeks and underparts. It weighs about 3^1bs 

 with a total length of 33 inches of which head and body are 

 15 inches : thus, contrary to the general rule, it is an insular race 

 characterised by increase of size. In these China Sea islands it 

 is found that when a species of mammal occurs in a solitary 

 island, however small that may be in area, it is confined to that 

 islaud alone, but when a species is present on an island of a group 

 it will generally be obtained throughout the group. In the case, 

 however, of the Ratufa of Jimaja this is not so ; it was neither 

 reported nor did we find it ourselves on any other of the Anambas. 



On the 25th we set out early in the morning with the in- 

 tention of seeing what truth there was in the report given us of 

 the " telaga" in the centre of the island. The first stage was to 

 the village up river — Kampong Ayer Maras — where the Peng- 

 hulu provided us with a guide. While w T aiting for the latter we 

 inspected a small waterfall about 20 feet high at the back of the 

 village. It was not much to look at however as there was very 

 little water in it at the time. We were then told that there 

 were two series of lakes, so voted for the larger set and when 

 the guide arrived started him off accordingly. 



The path traversed sago swamps for the greater part of the 

 way and was very muddy ; then passed through a small kampong 

 surrounded by fruit trees and soon after that through a stream 



Jour. Straits Branch 



