1016 
, BIRDS NESTS KARANG BOLLOXG. 
situated at about five miles distance over very difficult roads, the 
birds nests are kept and watched till the next morning in a bam- 
bu house, called kongsie made near the watch house of the cliff. 
They are afterwards brought to the godowns for which each bearer 
receives 5 cents, a sogo of opium of j sikar weight.* 
The collection of the nests necessarily depends altogether on the 
state of the sea. On the top of the mountain Kuda a flagstaff 
has been erected for this reason, and when a white flag is hoisted 
it is a signal that the sea is calm and that the holes can be ap¬ 
proached, but if a black flag be shewn it is a signal that the sea is 
too rough. Each collection from all the holes is finished in twenty 
to twenty four days. The principal birds nest cliffs are those which 
I have described above, and they extend from the east to the west 
along the Karrang Bollong south cape. Between Ihe^, there are 
some smaller cliffs the produce of which is of little or no import¬ 
ance. 
The collection of the nests is attended with much difficulty and 
sometimes even with danger to life, because the apertures are si¬ 
tuated at the foot of the rocks, and are consequently on a level with 
the surface of the sea^ so that the water washes in and out of some 
of the holes. Ilcnce when the sea is somewhat rough it is impos¬ 
sible to reach the apertures, much less to enter them. In order to 
form a just idea of the dangerous work which must be performed 
by the collectors I will try to give an exact description of it. 
To enter the cliffs you descend one precipice of two hundred 
feet, nearly perpendicular, by means of one, two or three rattan 
ladders (according to the greater or less height) which are 5 
inches broad and each 77 feet long. The lateral or principal 
ropes are composed of wild rattans twisted together to a thick¬ 
ness of two inches, and having wooden steps two inches thick 
and thirteen inches distant from each other. The upper end of 
the ladder is well fastened to a strong tree by black ropes and 
the lower end is placed on one of the rocks. 
In order to reach one of the holes, they make use of two rat¬ 
tans each one hundred and eight feet long; but in some cliffs bam- 
bus are used 12 to 18 feet long which are placed one above the 
* A Sikar is a half cent or the 2 hundredth part of a rupee #r gulden 
(guilder.) 
