316 Messrs. A. H. Everett, J. Evans, and G. Busk. [Apr. 15, 



of not less than 100 feet above the valley. The hones have belonged 

 to individuals of various ages, they are mostly fragmentary, and they 

 lie scattered on the surface, or but lightly imbedded in the earth 

 without reference to their proper anatomical relations. Their con- 

 dition will be better judged from the sample sent than from any 

 description that I could give. Occasionally fragments occur bearing 

 the marks of fire. The works of art associated with them include 

 broken jars, cups, cooking pots, and other utensils of earthenware. 

 The pottery is of excellent make, and often glazed and painted. 

 Besides the pottery, beads and armlets of a very hard dark-blue glass, 

 pieces of iron, manufactured gold, and fragments of charcoal have 

 been met with. Similar beads are in the possession of the Land 

 Dyaks at this day, but they can give no' account of their origin. 



No tradition is extant among the natives with regard to these relics. 

 No tribes in Borneo make habitual use of caves either as domiciles, or 

 as places of sepulture, or for any other purpose. The character of 

 the earthenware, however, and the use of iron and gold point to a 

 very modern date indeed for the people who left these signs of their 

 presence and hence the subject, though curious to a local geologist, 

 does not call for any detailed remarks here. It is very possible that 

 the remains date no farther back than the Hindu- Javanese occupation 

 of Borneo, when this part of the island with Pontianak and Banjar 

 were tributary to Majapahit, or they may be of Chinese origin — in 

 either case quite recent. 



4. Concluding Remarks. 



The general result of the exploration may be summed up as follows : 

 — The existence of ossiferous caves in Borneo has been proved, and at 

 the same time the existence of man in the island with the Fauna, whose 

 remains are entombed in these caves. But, both from the recent 

 nature of this fauna, and from the fact that the race of men whose 

 remains are associated with it had already reached an advanced stage 

 of civilisation, the discovery has in no way aided the solution of those 

 problems for the unravelling of which it was originally promoted. No 

 light has been thrown on the origin of the human race — the history 

 of the development of the fauna characterising the Indo-Malayan sub- 

 region has not been advanced — nor, virtually, has any evidence been 

 obtained towards showing what races of men inhabited Borneo pre- 

 viously to the immigration of the various tribes of Malayan stock which 

 now people the island. Furthermore, the presumption that the north- 

 west portion of Borneo has too recently emerged above the waters of 

 the sea to render it probable that future discoveries, will be made of 

 cave deposits of greatly higher antiquity than those already examined, 

 has been strengthened. Under these circumstances it seems advisable 

 that cavern research in north-west Borneo should now be left to 



