270 THE TAWARAN AND PUTATAN RIVERS. 



field, or rather plain, must, at a rough estimate, have been 

 some 600 acres in extent, the whole being marked off by the 

 land- marks of the different proprietors. It was intersected 

 by the Longhap, a small, canal-like stream. The water sup- 

 ply for purposes of irrigation is unlimited, the levels are welt 

 laid out and the banks neatly kept up, a path running along 

 the ridge of each. It would, however, be of great benefit to 

 the district were a fresh stock of paddy introduced, larger in 

 the ear, the present stock being small in the grain and 

 shewing signs of deterioration. There are some 80 to 100 

 Chinese settled on the Putatan, the bulk of them being the 

 descendants of former Chinese settlers, who have intermar- 

 ried with the Dusuns and shew evidence of mixed blood. 

 These Chinese are not agriculturists, nor, as far as I could 

 learn, landed proprietors, but are principally distillers, 

 manufacturing arrack, which they barter with the Du- 

 suns. The soil is decidedly superior to that of the valleys 

 of the Papar and Kimanis rivers to the South, and there is 

 an almost total absence of swamp, owing, no doubt, to the 

 country being all cleared, and the complete system of drain- 

 age. The surface configuration is that of a practically level 

 plain studded with numerous small hills, on which the timber 

 has wisely been left standing. The paddy fields extend up 

 to the very bases of these. In moist tracts and along the 

 lines of water-courses, some sago is grown, but the quantity 

 of this is inconsiderable. Some five piculs of gutta come 

 down from the interior monthly, and tobacco, camphor, bees- 

 wax and armadillo skins form the staple exports. The Bru- 

 nei Government imposes a tax of from $6 to $9 per head per 

 annum, or about {§200 for each pangkalan, or village land- 

 ing-place. The number of the villages is remarkable, and in 

 some parts of the upper portion of the river, they lie in sight 

 of, and sometimes quite contiguous to, one another. The 

 general aspect of the whole country is that of an orderly, 

 industrious and civilized community, and a very fair prospect 

 unfolds itself to the eye of one looking forth from the sum- 

 mit of one of the picturesque little hills above referred to, 

 over the far stretching expanse of green paddy plains, clus- 

 tering villages and detached homesteads nestling amid their 



