30 
NORTH BORNEO. 
indeed, and nearly all are victims, as might be expected, to malarial fever. During my 
short visit I watched two fishermen for some time in the early morning fishing with a large 
net, which was lowered into the sea by means of two long poles and ropes: when the fish, 
mostly grey mullet, swim in shoals over the net they are easily seen by the two men from 
their high perches ; the net is quickly raised and an assistant collects the spoils with a 
landing-net. While I was sketching the accompanying illustration quite a number of fish 
were captured, and immediately purchased by the Chinese coolies, who seemed more anxious 
about the fish than the fishermen themselves. 
When visiting Mempakol for the first time a stranger would wonder to himself why 
such a miserable site had been selected for the few shops, Government buildings, and native 
hovels which compose this station; but as it commands the entrance of the Padas andKilias 
Rivers, where the sago industry is extensively carried on, the flat swampy nature of the 
country being suited to the cultivation of this useful palm, and employing a large 
population, the duties on exports and imports are considerable ; it also has the advantage of 
close proximitv to Labuan, that island being about one hour s sail distant: but for all these 
advantages a more miserable and unhealthy spot I have seldom seen. 
We made an early start from Mempakol, sailing up one of the many channels of the 
mouth of the Padas River until we came to a “ Keelong,” or native stake fish-trap, in which 
the two owners were busily engaged collecting the fish. The “ Keelongs ” are made of 
fences of thin laths of wood stretching out into the shallower parts of the sea for over one 
hundred yards, like salmon stake-nets, and end in an enclosure which the fish unknowingly 
enter when trying to pass the slender wooden fence that bars their passage ; so cleverly 
arranged is this enclosure that the more a fish seeks to escape the further it enters its 
prison. The natives were collecting their captives in the inner enclosure by means of a 
long piece of “ Keelong ” fence, which one of them by diving fixed to the bottom close 
round the sides, then by gradually narrowing the space they were able to roll the fish up in the 
mat-like fencing and lift all out together: sometimes small sharks and crocodiles up to nine 
feet long get into these traps, when they mnst prove a disagreeable surprise to the man who 
does the diving. We purchased for a few cents some fine fish for ourselves and onr boat’s' 
crew, on which we breakfasted, at the landing-stage of some Brunei houses. During this 
repast an amusing incident happened. A child—perhaps three years old—had been doing 
its best to make things as unpleasant as possible for its mother by shrieking, when the 
woman losing all patience chucked the little urchin out of the door into the water below; 
after a good deal of spluttering, the child swam to one of the many piles on which these 
houses are built, where it remained clinging until in a better temper. Such treatment may 
seem strange to us; but Brunei babies can swim and, some say, smoke when only a few 
months old, so a plunge into the water is in reality no punishment at all. I never once saw 
natives ill-treat their children, and it is seldom that they require to correct them : these 
children have very little devilment in their characters, quite unlike the British youth; so 
noticeable is this fact that my native followers often used to tell me how “ baniak jahat ” 
(very wicked) the white man’s offspring were. After our repast we again rowed the prahu 
up stream, where the channels were so numerous, and often almost closed with overhanging 
vegetation, that it was at times difficult to find the right way. 
