THE TAW ARAN AND PtTTATAN RIVERS. 268 



The entire population of this district is Bajau, and is sup- 

 ported mainly by fishing, a little hil) paddy being grown as 

 well. 



The Mengkabong " river, " so called, bears evidences of 

 having been originally an inlet of the sea dotted with sand- 

 stone islands, which have, for the most part, become connected 

 by the rising of the land and by the silting up of the basin 

 itself, the blocking up of the mouth of which, by sand-bars, 

 has led to its assuming its present form. In general fea- 

 tures, it much resembles the Sulaman basin, no great distance 

 to the north of it. 



After threading this watery labyrinth, for some hours we 

 penetrated a narrow channel and landed at its head, at a small 

 hampong called Brungis, whence a walk of about an 

 hour over a low ridge, and then across a broad plain, 

 brought us to the banks of the swiftly flowing Tawaran river, 

 which at this point is a fine stream rolling its turgid yellow 

 flood along between sandy banks of medium height. The 

 Tawaran here intersects a level plain of large extent and sandy 

 soil, dotted with homesteads surrounded by plantations of 

 cocoa-nuts, and here and there under paddy cultivation. This 

 plain is bounded by the sea to the W., by the mountains of 

 the upper Tawaran to the E., and to the S. by the low ridge 

 mentioned above, which divides the respective water-sheds of 

 the Tawaran and the Mengkabong. On the northern bank 

 the plain apparently extends to the foot of the mountains 

 separating the Tawaran from the Sulaman basin. Our route 

 from Brungis lay East, East by North and then North, and the 

 portion of the plain traversed had a general fall towards the 

 East of North, but a very slight one. 



On striking the river, our course lay upstream for some con- 

 siderable distance, at first over level ground, and then, when 

 the limits of the plain had been reached, and the true valley 

 of the Tawaran entered, along the steep flanks of hills abut- 

 ting on the stream, where a false step would often have preci- 

 pitated one into the flood below. Fields of paddy, groves of 

 cocoa-nut trees, herds of buffaloes, together with pigs, goats 

 and poultry, betokened a well-to-do and prosperous population. 

 Sugar-cane appeared to thrive, but the specimens seen were 



