AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 13 
widens and the roof stretches high up over our heads; we follow a 
winding passage to the left for perhaps a quarter of a mile and then 
ground on a sand-bank and have to wander on foot round fantastic 
limestone rocks under huge stalactites hanging from lofty chambers, 
then squeeze through another passage and out again into another 
huge chamber, having lost the source of the stream under one of the 
walls. We find one of these passages leads out on to the upper 
surface of the cliff, thus affording an escape if the water did happen 
to rise and cut off our egress below. A few edible nests of the Swift 
(Collocalia lowi) were found, but little else besides the usual legion 
of bats. In all we spent an interesting hour and a quarter under 
the mountain,n—“ where no white men and but few natives had 
ever ventured before!” 
I have digressed on to my trip of last year, but as the present 
expedition is merely a second attempt at the objective of the first, 
IT must make that my excuse for mentioning one or two incidents 
of the first attempt. 
May 11th: (Temp. 7 a.m. 73°). Just at the kuala Madalam 
there is a ‘Tabun graveyard in the jungle by the side of the river. 
I landed one morning to inspect it and found the decapitated 
trunks of three large trees, about fifteen feet high. A space had 
been cut out of the top so as to hold a large jar in which the bones 
of the dead were deposited. One of these jars was blue and white, 
the other two the usual brown earthenware, but according to the 
Dayaks with me, none were of much value. At the foot of one of 
these pillars was an ordinary wooden coffin supported on two forked 
posts some four or five feet from the ground. This contained the 
remains of a Tabun who had died some six months ago and near 
it was another coffin of which the lid had rotted away exposing 
some decomposing remains. On the hill above were some Dayak 
graves characterised by the neatly carved “sarcophagus” of wood. 
marking the spot. 
From Tama Seluling’s house we could see three peaks to the 
south of us, which were pointed out as Mt. Molu to the west, Mt. 
Buda (the source of the Madalam) in the centre, double peaked, 
and Mt. Obong to the east. 
Tama Belulok and some:Tabuns turned up this afternoon but 
unaccompanied by Gesang who had excused himself (and his three 
companions) on account of a bad dream. Our Dayaks left behind at 
Ukong to dry the rice have also joined us, and other men are hard 
at work preparing a boat to replace a leaky one we had brought 
from Limbang, so we have every hope of getting on tomorrow 
morning. I shall be glad to do so as the kuala Madalam has un- 
pleasant memories for me, of s tedious wait of 4 days for the river 
to go down, of a mosquito-bitten hour in a tree waiting for some 
deer to come and be shot, of the subsequent chase after a wounded 
one in pitch dark swamp and jungle “assisted” by the light of a 
few matches, and not least, of a delicious breakfast off the roe of 
R. A. Soc., No. 63, 1912, 
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