1880.] On the Exploration of the Caves of Borneo. 315 



which bridge over all the fissures to a greater or less degree, and afford 

 a safe passage to the smaller animals. 



3. The Human Remains. 



Many of the caves present traces of the presence of man. Eleven 

 of the caves examined by me exhibited such traces, and 1 had infor- 

 mation of five others. The cave exploration has, indeed, yielded traces 

 of man or his handiwork under three distinct sets of conditions, 

 viz., (1) in river gravel, (2) in the river mud of the Jambusan 

 cave, as mentioned in the preceding section, and (3) in the surface- 

 layers of various caverns in Upper Sarawak and at Niah. 



(1.) During my first exploration I discovered imbedded at the 

 bottom of a bed of river gravel exposed in a section on the left bank 

 of the Siniawan river, a single stone celt. It was forwarded to the 

 late Sir C. Lyell with a note of the circumstances of its occurrence, 

 and was pronounced by him to be of Neolithic type. It is the only 

 existing evidence, to my knowledge, of the use of stone by man for 

 the manufacture of industrial implements yet discovered in Borneo. 

 At present iron seems to be universally employed even by the rudest 

 tribes. 



(2.) In cave No. XIII, scattered abundantly throughout the upper 

 8 inches of the river mud, there occurred water- worn fragments of a 

 rather coarse but fairly well made pottery. It was so fragmentary 

 and water-worn that it was impossible to distinguish of what kind of 

 utensils it had formed a part. Associated with it were a few marine 

 shells (Gardium, Cyjprcea, and others), a single fragment of stone 

 apparently bearing marks of human workmanship, pieces of burnt 

 bone, fresh-water shells (Neritina and Potamides) also bearing the 

 marks of fire, the tooth of a tiger cat, with a hole bored through the 

 base, a»rude bone bead, and a few clean chips of quartz. No stone 

 implements properly so called were observed, though carefully looked 

 for. These remains indicate the presence of a settlement of people at 

 some distance without the cave on the banks of the stream, which 

 formed the river mud deposit. The quality of the pottery shows that 

 this people had attained a fair degree of civilisation. The presence of 

 the marine shells seems to imply that the sea coast was within easy 

 reach of the vicinity of the Jambusan Hill. The remains generally, 

 although of slight interest except to the local archaeologist, belong to 

 a ruder stage of art than the following. 



(3.) The traces of man in the remainder of the eleven caves above 

 referred to consist of human bones, associated, in some instances, with 

 works of art. These remains occur always either just within or but a 

 few yards removed from the entrances of the caves. The caves in 

 which they lie commonly open on the faces of steep mural precipices. 

 That at Ahup, where the largest accumulation exists, is at an elevation 



vol. xxx. z 



