4 AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 
their official diary is given in the Sarawak Gazette (1889. p. 78) 
from which we learn that the expedition started from Trusan Fort 
on March 25th, 1888, reached the Bah country in ten days and 
returned again by April 17th, after an absence of 24 days. The 
elevation of the valley (of the Bah Country) is given as “ 3,500 ft. 
‘and the whole of it is highly cultivated and_ systematically 
irrigated ; ” and again, “ At the head of the Bah valley is the range 
of hills from which springs the Trusan, which at their foot is but 
‘a small trickling stream about two feet wide. This was the 
farthest point reached.” 
No mention is made of Batu Lawi, which, if seen, would 
surely have occasioned remark. 
A second expedition was made up the ‘Trusan to this part as 
far as the Kelalan stream in 1910 by Mr. J. Stansfield,* who was 
prospecting for the Government. He was away 28 days and told 
me he saw no signs of Batu Lawi. 
The third route,—via the Baram and Tutau—is the easiest, 
as far as the river journey is concerned; and the longest and most 
extensive journey, after that of St. John, has been accomplished 
from this side by Mr. R. 8. Douglas, who reached the Bah plain, 
south of the Limbang and Trusan head-waters in 1908. He left 
Claudetown (the Government station on the Baram River) on 
October 25th and did not return till December 19th. He des- 
cribes his journey briefly in the Sarawak Gazette (1909, p. 29) and 
at greater length in the Sarawak Museum Journal (1912, Vol. I, 
No. 2, pp. 17-29). From these it appears that he spent some time 
on the southern portion of the plain, but did not penetrate to its 
eastern or northern boundaries. The details of his sketch-map and 
of mine, which accompanies this paper, are necessarily imperfect, 
and there are certain differences which we are unable to reconcile 
at present ; however, it is proposed to undertake a joint expedition 
in the near future to this region, when we hope these points will 
be cleared up satisfactorily. 
In order to complete our historical account I have quoted below 
all the passages I can find in which mention is made of Batu Lawi.* 
*Vide Sarawak Gazette, 1910, p68, 
*Sir Spenser St. John. Lifein the Forests of the Far East,2nd Kd. 1863, 
Vol. II, p. 25. ‘‘ One of the greatest curiosities, the natives say, is the for- 
mation of two mountains, which rise from a plain in lofty peaks of the 
shape of needles; they have nev r been to them, but have seen them from a dis- 
tance; they are the pillars of the gate of some enchanted palace, and I heard it 
whispered to one of my men that all were not privileged to see even these pill- 
ars, as it requires some incantation; so that there is a chance of the needle 
mountains vanishing into thin air’’. (Almost certainly a reference to the 
double peak of Batu Lawi). J.C.M. 
Ibid. p. 87. ‘‘An hour’s walk brought us to the Upper Limbang, whose bed 
is here, perhaps, seventy yards wide, very shallow, not reaching to the hip. It 
flows from the Silingid mountains, and is said,after skirting their western face, 
to turn to the south-east to its sourcesin Lawi’’. (The Limbang River passes 
Batu Lawi and is said to rise in Mt. Murud). J.C.M. 
Tour. Straits Branch 
