170 
KINA BAKU: SECOND EXPEDITION. 
nothing, dependent as I am entirely on these people; so I waited until I returned to Kiau, 
when I informed the Dusuns that Ivuro was a thief. He was the only thief I met among 
the Dusuns. 
10th.—I left Buntar in charge of the camp, as he is now a great deal better; he much 
wanted to accompany us to the summit, but I could not leave the camp unguarded, so he 
had to stop. I have since heard that his wish to see the summit of Kina Balu has been 
gratified. We started on' a fine clear morning—not a cloud being visible—to ascend, if 
possible, to the top of this great mountain. The path was easy but for the continual 
stooping to avoid the twisted moss-covered tree-trunks : on the way up I noticed hundreds 
of Nepenthes villosa. The cave where Messrs. Low and St. John stopped Avas reached at 
10.30, or in two hours and a half after starting. This cave, as I have before stated, is not a 
true cave, being merely formed by a few huge granite boulders falling together. Directly 
past its mouth flows a small stream, the Tampassuk, in which the temperature is 48° Fahr. 
My aneroid gives the height of the cave at 10,300 feet. The cave mentioned by Burbidge 
in his expedition to the mountain could not have been this one, as he mentions the difficulty 
of finding water, having to use that found in the Nepenthes. Directly in front of the cave 
a path leads along the mountain—the Dusuns tell me to Kiau. After having partaken of 
some rice, Nyhan and I proceeded to explore, the Dusuns and Tungal to make ready for 
the night. We ascended the mountain for some distance above the cave, which is covered 
with a straggling growth of rhododendrons, one white- and the other pink-flowered; the 
flowers are by no means striking, being small, the shrubs themselves too straggling, having 
a tuft of foliage here and there, and by no means equal to a rich yellow-flowered species 
seen below. The sky, for a wonder, was cloudless, and the sun shone bright and warm upon 
us. I felt happier than I have done for weeks. The slopes are nearly bare of shrubs for 
some distance, after the growth mentioned is passed : here I saw a small white-flowered 
alpine in bloom, and a heath with waxy pink bells; in the cracks of the granite rocks a 
small orchid was in flower ( Eria , sp. 1). The granite slopes over which we walked are 
covered with sharp crystals, sticking up like pins, the softer particles having been W’orn 
away by the weather. This kind of rock soon wore down the horny soles of Nyhan’s feet, 
making them very tender. 
The only birds noticed were the Blackbird, the Chlorocharis, and the small Cettia. The 
last few days have been most propitious for the appearance of insects, but I never saw a 
single butterfly, though I was out all day; the only insects noticed were a beetle (a species 
of weevil) and a few blue-bottle flies. We reached a height of 11,300 feet and then sat 
down—Nyhan to sleep, I to contemplate the wonderful scene around. The rocks near the 
top seem quite inaccessible, but to-morrow I hope to see more of the upper regions. 
Around us was a desolate region of granite slopes, the general effect of which is curious, 
giving one the idea that evervthing is much further off than it really is. This effect is 
produced by the stunted but perfectly formed shrubs and trees, which in the bright 
sunlight looked as though they were covered with dust of a light grey colour, which gave 
the apparent prospective distance; but this was an optical illusion, as not a particle of 
dust exists here, and was caused by the reflection of bright sunlight on these grey- 
coloured slopes. When we returned to the cave, soon after 5 p.m., the Dusuns had a 
