410 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
‘‘We steamed about ten or twelve English miles up one of the 
many winding river arms, when the limited depth compelled us 
to turn. The vegetation on the mainland, as on the shores of 
the islands lying near the river-mouth, was everywhere so close 
that it was nearly impossible to find a place where we could 
land ; everywhere there was the impenetrable primeval forest. 
Next the mouth of the river this consisted of tall, shady broad¬ 
leaved trees, which all had dark green, lustrous, large leaves. 
Some were in flower, others bore fruit. The greater number 
consisted of fig trees, whose numerous air-foots twining close 
on each other formed an impenetrable fence at the river bank. 
These air-root-bearing trees play an important role in increasing 
the area of the land and diminishing that of the water. They 
send their strong air-roots from the branches and stem far out 
into the water, and when the roots have reached the bottom, 
and pushed their way into the mud, they make, by the close 
basket-work they form, an excellent binding medium for all the 
new mud which the river carries with it from the higher ground 
in the interior. It has struck me that the air-root-bearing trees 
form one of the most important means for the rapid increase of 
the alluvial land on Borneo. Farther up the river there com¬ 
menced large stretches of a species of palm, which with its 
somewhat lighter green and its long sheath-formed leaves was 
sharply distinguished from the rest of the forest. Sometimes 
the banks on one side were covered with palms only, on the 
other with fig-trees only. The palm jungles were not so 
impenetrable as the fig-tree thickets; the latter preferred the 
more swampy hollows, while the palms on the other hand grew 
on the more sandy and less marshy places. Of herbs and 
underwood there was nowhere any trace. 
“ During the river voyage we saw now and then single green- 
coloured kingfishers flying about, and a honeysucker or two, but 
they were not nearly so numerous as might have been expected 
in this purely tropical zone. We saw some apes leaping in pairs 
among the trees, and Palander succeeded in shooting a male. 
Alligators from one to one and a half metre in length, frightened 
by the noise of the propeller, throw themselves suddenly into the 
water. Small land lizards with web-feet jumped forward with 
surprising rapidity on the water near the banks. This was all 
we saw of the higher animals. 
“ After a run of two hours, during which we examined the 
banks carefully in order to find a landing place, we lay to at the 
best possible place for seeing what the lower fauna had to offer. 
It was no easy matter to get to land. The ground was so muddy 
