L PEEPACE. 
This report is the result of a visit to British North Borneo in July 1929 
undertaken with the permission of the Government of the Straits Settlements at 
the request of the late Mr. J, L. Huiuphreys, c.M.G., CB.E., then Governor of the 
Chartered Company's territory. 
The Gomantong Caves were visited and the official records of matters relating 
to the caves and the associated industry were examined. 
1 must express my gratitude to the officials of the Chartered Company : the 
leasst of many kindness shown to me during my stay in Borneo was the manner in 
which the accumulated exi>erience of many >ears was placed at my disposal. In 
particular I must mention the Hon. Mr. J. Maxwell Hall, the Resident of Sandakan 
and Mr. W. J. Phillips, Assistant District Officer, in whose administrative area the * 
caves are situated. 
Unfortunately the Conservator of Forests was not in Sandakan at the time of 
my visit. 
The following pages contain much that is admittedly only of academic in- 
terest but this apparently extraneous matter has been purposely introduced in an 
attempt to invest the subject with a certain lunount of interest calculated to appeal 
to officers administering the caves in future. The purely practical portions con- 
taining the recommendations I have ventured to make are introduced in their 
appropriate place but for convenience the more important of these ai'e summarized 
in a final section of the report. 
It will be noticed that there are statements in the following pages based 
solely on native testiraony. At this early stage of a serious study of the Goman- 
tong caves no other source of information is available. It is almost unnecessary 
to point out that knowledge so acquired can never be regarded as absolutely 
authentic. 
Singapore, li^t March, 1930, 
F. N. CHASEN. 
