84 



BORNEO. 



[CEAr. V. 



overliead. Trees of tins ehamcter are found all over 

 the Arcliipelago, and the preceding illustration (taken 

 feim one which I often visited iu the Aru Islands) will 

 convey some idea of their general character. I believe 

 tliat they originate aa parxusites, from seeds carried by 

 bird.s and dropped in tlie fork of some lofty tree. Hence 

 descend aerial roots, clasping and ultimately destroying 

 the Hupportiug tree, which is in time entirely replaced b> 

 tlie hnmble plant wliich was at first dependent upon it 

 Thus we have an actual struggle for life in the vege- 

 table kingdom, not less fatal to the vanquished than the 

 struggles among animals which we can so much more 

 easily observe and underatand. The advantage of quicker 

 access to light and warmth and air, which is gained in one 

 way by climbing plants, is here obtained by a forest tree, 

 which has the means of starting in life at an elevatiou 

 which others can only attain after many years of growth, 

 and then only when the fall of some other tree has made 

 room for them. Thus it is that in the warm and moist 

 and equable climate of the tropics, each avadahle station 

 is seized upon, and becomes the means of developing new 

 forms of lile especially adapted to occupy it. 



On reaching Sarawak eai-ly in Deceiuher I found there 

 would not be an opportunity of returning to Singapore till 

 the latter end of Januarj^ I therefore aece|ited Sn James 

 Brooke's invitation to spend a week with liim and ^Ir. 

 St, John at his cottage on Peninjauh. This is a veiy steep 

 pyramidal mountain of crj-slaUlne basaltic rock, about a 

 thousand feet high, and covered with luxuriant forest 

 There are three Dyak villages upon it, and on a little plat- 

 form near the summit is the rude wooden lodge where the 

 English Eajah was accustomed to go for ndaxation and 

 cool fi-esh air. It is only twenty miJes up the river, but 

 tlie road up the mountain is a successiou of ladders on 

 the face of precipices, bamboo bridges over gullies and 

 chasms, and slippery paths over rocks and tree-trunks and 

 huge boulders iis big as houses. A cool spring under an 

 overhanging rock just below tlie cottage furnished us with 

 refreshing baths and deHcious drinking water, and the 

 Dyaks brought us daily heaped-up baskets of Mangusteens 

 and Lansats, two of the moat delicious of the subacid 



