56 AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 
charge of the station and realize the pleasure of meeting a European 
once more and talking nglish again after forty days wandering, 
with natives only for. companions. ‘he ordinary common-places 
of civilization all appear unusually attractive; sitting on a chair 
to a meal laid out on a lable! Having a bed to sleep. in! Veget- 
ables, bread, butter, etc., to eat!! European papers to read—true 
they are six weeks old, but still new to me! It is quite curious to 
feel such appreciation for what one is accustomed to regard more 
or less as the necessities of life. 
July 13th. After a pleasant, peaceful four weeks spent here 
enjoying the kind hospitality of Mr. Johnson, the daily expected 
steamer has at last arrived and we are to sail for Kuching to- 
morrow. 
July 14th. Left at 11 a.m. and reached the mouth of the 
Baram river that evening; there is rather a swell on outside and 
it is doubtful whether we can get over the bar to-morrow; we go 
ashore and enjoy a refreshing bathe in the sea, then climb to the 
top of the hght-house in time to watch a magnificent sunset. 
July 15th. ‘Too rough to get ovt at Ligh tide this morning, 
so we have to put off all hopes of leaving till to-morrow. The bar 
of this river is particularly shallow, so that during the north-east 
monsoon no steamer can get in at all: even in the fine months of 
the year the steamers often have {o wait for several days before 
getting in or out; once a whole month was spent by a steamer 
waiting patiently outside for a calm day to get in to the river! 
July 16th. Safely over the bar this morning, and the sea nice 
and calm, promising a fair passage to Ikuching which we should 
reach in 36 hours. 
July 17th. Arrived in Kuching shortly after midday after 
an absence of two months and a half. Tue collectors had arrived 
from Limbang some ten days before. ‘They had had a quick passage 
down the Limbang and had been able to spend five days collecting 
at the kuala Salindong. Then they had finished the journey on 
down to the Government station at Limbang and after a weck’s 
wait there had caught a steamer for Kuching arriving some ten 
days before us. 
ConcLuDING NOTE. 
Perhaps a word of apology for the length of my narrative is 
due to the reader who has had the patience to follow me thus far, 
since after all, the journey described was certainly of less interest 
than many others of a similar nature accomplished every year by 
Europeans among uncivilized tribes in varicus parts of the world. 
and the necessary details could no doubt have been confined to a 
tenth part of the space now occupied by my narrative. I have not 
tried to condense it this manner for two reasons principally :— (i) 
because I believe that the only way in which our knowledge of 
foil Jour. Straits Branch 
