56 AN p:xpedition to mount kina balu. 
J\/arch 10th. I ascended with I)e Fontaine to the top 
of Kion hill which is covered with deep jungle and is about 1000' 
abov'e the village. From a clearing we liad a wonderful view 
of Kina Balu ; nothing intervened between here and the foot of 
the mountain which seemed scarcely more than three miles off, 
and the top of the mountain, bare and rocky, stood out chiselled 
clear and sharp against the sky. Our success in collecting was 
small, but the men brought in a good deal, especially stag -horn 
beetles and several species of coconut beetles. Megalaphri}.^ 
iuiiiifta, the strange frog with the large projecting triangular 
eye-lids and triangular liap to its nose, seemed to be common 
here, as we found it the day before in Koung. I interviewed 
the guides; the one informed me he could only start with us in 
two days, as he. had to get a fowl and seven eggs for sacrifice 
to the spirits of the mountain, .\rguing with him led to no re- 
sults. The otlier guide, however, declared that he would be 
ready on the next morning. 
Mofulaif, 2Iarr/t 20th. We rose early to make a start for 
Kina Balu, but the coolies, who had scattered over the whole 
village, were slow in assembling, I interviewed Malagup at 8 
a.in. and tried to expedite matters, but at 10 a.m., as sufTi- 
cient men had not appeared, I decided to leave some of my 
luggage behind and start. But we had still to wait for the 
guide Avho finally turned up after urgent messages. He now 
1 ‘efused to go without his colleague, the fowl and the seven eggs. 
>So at 10.45 a.m., witli blessings on the guides, the fowl and 
the seven eggs, I decided to abandon the start. Things seemed 
utterly hopeless, — Moiming sunny, afternoon dreadfully rainy 
a-nd dreary. 
I'iimlaii, March 21rt. Bull morning', rain until daybreak. 
'Hie men really turned up sot)ii after G.30 a.m., but a start was 
not made until 7.30 a.m. After a steep descent we reached an 
isolated group of houses, which the natives still called Kiou, at 
8 a.m., aneroid 1800', then continued the descent to the Kada- 
maian Biver which we reached at 8.25 a.m,, aneroid 1500', 
crossed twice by bamb<w bridges and twice by fords, passed a 
little village in tlie midst of an extensive plantation of Keladi 
and a little maize, had to cross by a formidable ford just below 
the place where the river forms a small island, and from there 
