4 
INTRODUCTION. 
scientific naturalists to travel extensively or make a 
lengthy sojourn in any one country for the sole pur¬ 
poses of scientific research. And there is by no means 
a plethora of travellers trained to observe and record 
the valuable material which comes their way. 
More often than not a hasty scamper through a 
little-known country provides the material for a “book 
of travel” which will contain one mass of inaccurate 
records, collected no doubt in all good faith, but 
absolutely valueless by reason of the author’s ignor¬ 
ance of the country and the superficiality of his 
observations;—and this, perhaps, the only “work of 
reference” on one particular country or tribe ! It is 
curious to reflect on the number of books of this type 
which make their appearance year by year, when such 
classic examples of simplicity of narrative and ac¬ 
curacy of detail have been provided for the last half- 
century by such works as Darwin’s “Voyage of the 
Beagle”, Wallace’s “Malay Archipelago”, Belt’s “Ni¬ 
caragua”, or the “Naturalist on the Amazons” by 
H. W. Bates. And alas 1 how seldom do books of this 
latter type appear ! 
One turns then to those whose duties take them to 
far distant lands for some length of time, and especial¬ 
ly to those whose life is spent in continual contact 
with the natives, such as District Officers or Mission¬ 
aries. To them one must look for accurate informa¬ 
tion, not necessarily embodied in a learned treatise on 
the natives or on any particular subject, but rather in 
the form of a succession of simple observations, noted 
and verified day by day during their life among the 
natives of their own particular district. And it should 
be the privilege and duty of scientific Institutions and 
Societies in those lands to diligently collect and 
publish such notes, and so accumulate a mass of 
absolutely trustworthy records. 
Thus, then, the object of the “ Sarawak Museum- 
Journal.” Floreat morebit. 
