38 AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWL. 
The natives in their scanty clothing find it very cold at night, 
many of them lie huddled up round the fires. One or two complain 
of fever, others of stomach trouble or colds. ‘The food is getting 
short so we cannot afford another day here looking for a path. 
May 27th: (Temp. 7. a.m. 63°). We start of alom@ the 
mountains in a southern direction, then descend east to the river 
Kri, alt. 3,700 ft., continue down that river knee-deep till 11 a.m. 
when we come across the remains of a hut recently used by Dayak 
gutta-hunters. It has been a most tedious morning scrambling 
along the river bed, or river bank, over huge boulders, “ tight-rope- 
walking * along fallen trees which the natives invariably makes 
straight for, regarding such as Heaven-sent bridges; the European 
Is inclined to regard them in another ght, especially when they 
span a mountain torrent, swirling along some thirty feet below one. 
The Kalabits wanted to stop at this place as we could find no trace 
of any further path, so we did—but only for a meal and then on 
again up the hill, Bululok and I acting as guides. By my compass 
I knew that Batu Lawi was on our right and that by following the 
stream on down any further we were likely to be led too far to the 
north, so we cut straight up over the hill, a stiff scramble on hands 
and knees with parangs in constant use to cut a way through the 
undergrowth, whieh was not very thick luckily, owing to the tall 
trees overhead. The natives with their heavy loads had a bad time 
of it, but some of them deserved it for pretending not to know the 
way. ‘The Kalabits in particular have seemed more and more dis- 
inclined each day to bring us to Batu Lawi; they must know the 
way in reality, as they once lived quite near here, according to 
Penribut; although I have not heard them mention it, I think it is 
because each day “brings us nearer to the country of their enemies, 
the dread Pa Brian people, who live the other side of Batu Lawi. 
Later we struck a path running more or less in the right direction 
which we followed for some two hours and a half. At one place 
we were startled at seeing fresh blood on the ground, and an 
examination of the leading: half dozen showed that it could not 
have come from any of them, as a!though most exhibited the atten- 
tions of leeches, cuts or other wounds, none could have been the 
cause of so much blood. We looked in vain for traces of some 
animal; some uneasily murmured “munsu” (enemy) and for 
some ten minutes we sat down and discussed the mystery; even- 
tually a Murut joined us and owned up to a nasty cut across the 
hand which thus explained the whole thing, as he had been sitting 
on that spot some time and then gone off down the hill side to look 
for water to bathe it. But for those few minutes we were much 
puzzled by the unpleasantly suggestive “mystery.” ‘There was a 
fine rubber tree (gutta rian) close by here, and the Dayaks pointed 
out several of one kind and another on our journey; these tracts of 
virgin jungle must still be very rich in this kind of produce, as 
natives from down-river seldom venture so far as this, and the 
scattered inhabitants only work sufficient to meet their immediate 
Jour. Straits Branch 
a se 
