SOME VISITS TO BATAM ISLAND. 65 



wouldn't tack in the rough weather and we had to wear every 

 time but when we got into Senimba Bay it was a nice reach 

 down to the kampong. It was low tide and there was a pig 

 on the mud as we arrived so I paddled off towards him with 

 the gun but lost his track in the mangroves. I had been at 

 the tiller for eight hours without a spell and was painfully 

 sun-burnt. 



My old dwelling place had been pulled down but another 

 Chinaman had built another unsuccessful shop so we appro- 

 priated the empty place as before; and then I had a most 

 glorious bath, hitherto having to be content with a dip in the 

 sea of nights which was a great discomfort but this occasion 

 squared it all. 



" 22nd. Went along the range at day-break but saw only 

 " krahs " : cut a path down the far side along the bed of a 

 dry ravine in hopes of finding jungle beyond but there were 

 only stretches of dense scrub. Spent the afternoon on the 

 mud collecting stone-corals and sponges, small kinds of every 

 possible shape and colour. The kampong women catch shell 

 fish in a rather ingenious manner: they search the exposed 

 mud for the hole in which the mollusc lives and then push 

 down a stout piece of the midrib of a rattan palm about 

 twenty inches long and armed at the end with a pair of 

 reversed thorns, and the bivalve lying open at the bottom of 

 the hole closes on the thorns when touched and is drawn up. 

 Got my traps out towards evening and then watched for pig, 

 with no success. 



" 23rd. Found a Mus firmus in the traps ; this was not in 

 the last collection. A blank morning on the hill except for 

 a specimen of the beautiful rose-breasted pigeon (Ptilopus 

 jambu). Tried a small island across the mud flats where pig 

 were reported but saw none: the mud was fearful stuff to 

 travel through. 



" 24th. An absolutely blank morning in the jungle but 

 two napus were brought in and gave something to do. Full 

 moon is said by all hands to be the best time for catching 

 mouse-deer. Lent a gun to a would-be shooter who as usual 

 ewore to whole rafts of pigs which never seem to materialise. 



E. A. Soc, Ko. 50, 1008, 



