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



form a miniature cove, with a small cave at its inland extremity. The 

 most striking form presented by the rocks are those of the " tabular " 

 and " mushroom " types. Their bases being protected from the honey- 

 combing action of the rain, still present surfaces smoothly polished by 

 the even wash of sea-waves. The exact counterpart of these rocks and 

 of these inland cliffs may be seen in the Philippine Archipelago on the 

 present shores of the islands lying to the northward of Surigao. Such 

 peculiar assemblages of rocks cannot be referred to the action of 

 streams varying their course, for the rocks surround every hill, large 

 and small, and besides, the action of the streams in the limestone 

 district of Sarawak is rather in the direction of cutting one definite 

 channel in the solid rock and keeping to it. Still less could the heavy 

 tropical rains produce such results by their long- continued operation 

 over a rock-surface of unequal hardness. Were there no other argu- 

 ment against such a supposition, the presence of the " mushroom " 

 rocks would be fatal to it. 



Page 314. " Sarawak Coast .... advancing seaward." — The shore 

 line of north-west Borneo (Sarawak) appears to be gaining on the sea 

 steadily as a whole. Whether the land is stationary and the gain is 

 due solely to the amount of sediment poured into the sea by an exten- 

 sive river system, draining a country composed of rocks peculiarly liable 

 to rapid degradation by denudational agencies and exposed, at the same 

 time, to a rainfall equalled by that of few countries on the face of the 

 globe, or whether, in addition to the shoaling of the sea by the intro- 

 duction of fluviatile debris, the land is at present undergoing a slow 

 elevatory movement, I do not feel prepared to decide. Of the mere 

 fact of the recent increase of the land there is abundant evidence. 

 The coast between Lunder and Samarahan, and again, between Kalakat 

 and Igan, is a flat belt of alluvial soil, but just raised above the level 

 of the highest tides, and traversed in every direction by broad tidal 

 channels. The belt extends inland from ten to thirty miles. Cape 

 Sirik is its most prominent point, and, although it is composed of soft 

 alluvium, and is exposed to the fury of the north-east monsoon, blowing 

 down the whole expanse of the China Sea, this cape extends itself so 

 rapidly seawards that the subject is one of common remark among the 

 natives in its vicinity. The Paloh Malanans have farmed close up to 

 the point for many years past, and they state the addition to the land 

 annually to average three fathoms. One of the elder men pointed out 

 a distance of nearly two miles, as showing the increase within his 

 memory. Numerous facts could be adduced pointing in the same 

 direction. 



Page 314. "No animals habitually use caves" — Wild pig are said by 

 the natives to retire into caves to die. This may explain why their 

 remains are not uncommon in such situations. I have seen traces of a 

 bear in a cave, but as a rule none of the larger animals enter the 



