to
these two great islands, in the former of which, however, it seems to be
much more rare. In Borneo it has a wide range, inhabiting many districts
on the southwest, southeast, northeast, and northwest coasts, but
appears to be chiefly confined to the low and swampy forests. It seems,
at first sight, very inexplicable that the Mias should be quite unknown
in the Sarawak valley, while it is abundant in Sambas, on the west, and
Sadong, on the east. But when we know the habits and mode of life of
the animal, we see a sufficient reason for this apparent anomaly in
the physical features of the Sarawak district. In the Sadong, where I
observed it, the Mias is only found when the country is low level and
swampy, and at the same time covered with a lofty virgin forest. From
these swamps rise many isolated mountains, on some of which the Dyaks
have settled and covered with plantations of fruit trees. These are a
great attraction to the Mias, which comes to feed on the unripe fruits,
but always retires to the swamp at night. Where the country becomes
slightly elevated, and the soil dry, the Mias is no longer to be found.
For example, in all the lower part of the Sadong valley it abounds, but
as soon as we ascend above the limits of the tides, where the country,
though still flat, is high enough to be dry, it disappears. Now the
Sarawak valley has this peculiarity--the lower portion though swampy, is
not covered with a continuous lofty forest, but is principally occupied
by the Nipa palm; and near the town of Sarawak where the country becomes
dry, it is greatly undulated in many parts, and covered with small
patches of virgin forest, and much second-growth jungle on the ground,
which has once been cultivated by the Malays or Dyaks.

Now it seems probable to me that a wide extent of unbroken and equally
lofty virgin forest is necessary to the comfortable existence of these
animals. Such forests form their open country, where they can roam in
every direction with as much facility as the Indian on the prairie, or
the Arab on the desert, passing from tree-top to tree-top without ever
being obliged to descend upon the earth. The elevated and the drier
districts are more frequented by man, more cut up by clearings and low
second-growth jungle--not adapted to its peculiar mode of progression,
and where it would therefore be more exposed to danger, and more
frequently obliged to descend upon the earth. There is probably also a
greater v