56 AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT KIN A BALU. 



Sunday, March 19th. I ascended with De Fontaine to the top 

 of Kiou hill which is covered with deep jungle and is about 1000' 

 above the village. From a clearing we had a wonderful view 

 of Kina Balu ; nothing intervened between here and the foot of 

 the mountain which seemed scarcely more than three miles off, 

 and the top of the mountain, bare and rocky, stood out chiselled 

 clear and sharp against the sky. Our success in collecting was 

 small, but the men brought in a good deal, especially stag-horn 

 beetles and several species of coconut beetles. MegaUphrfs 

 nasvta, the strange frog with the large projecting triangular 

 eye-lids and triangular flap to its nose, seemed to be common 

 here, as we found it the day before in Koung. I interviewed 

 the guides ; the one informed me he could only start with us in 

 two days, as he had to get a fowl and seven eggs for sacrifice 

 to the spirits of the mountain. Arguing with him led to no re- 

 sults. The other guide, however, declared that he would be 

 ready on the next morning. 



Monday, March 20th. We rose early to make a start for 

 Kina Balu, but the coolies, who had scattered over the whole 

 village, were slow in assembling'. I interviewed Malagup at 8 

 a.m. and tried to expedite matters, but at 10 a.m., as suffi- 

 cient men had not appeared, I decided to leave some of my 

 luggage behind and start. But we had still to wait for the 

 guide who finally turned up after urgent messages. He now 

 refused to go without his colleague, the fowl and the seven eggs. 

 So at 10.45 a.m., with blessings on the guides, the fowl and 

 the seven eggs, I decided to abandon the start. Things seemed 

 utterly hopeless. — Morning sunny, afternoon dreadfully rainy 

 and dreary. 



Tuesday, March 21st. Dull morning, rain until daybreak. 

 The men really turned up soon after 6.30 a.m., but a start was 

 not made until 7.30 a.m. After a steep descent we reached an 

 isolated group of houses, which the natives still called Kiou, at 

 8 a.m., aneroid 1800\ then continued the descent to the Kada- 

 maian River which we reached at 8.25 a.m., aneroid 1500\ 

 crossed twice by bamboo bridges and twice by fords, passed a 

 little village in the midst of an extensive plantation of Keladi 

 and a little maize, had to cross by a formidable ford just below 

 the place where the river forms a small island, and from there 



