y 25th,
1856. In the interval I resided at many different localities, and saw
a good deal of the Dyak tribes as well as of the Bornean Malays. I
was hospitably entertained by Sir James Brooke, and lived in his house
whenever I was at the town of Sarawak in the intervals of my journeys.
But so many books have been written about this part of Borneo since I
was there, that I shall avoid going into details of what I saw and heard
and thought of Sarawak and its ruler, confining myself chiefly to my
experiences as a naturalist in search of shells, insects, birds and the
Orangutan, and to an account of a journey through a part of the interior
seldom visited by Europeans.

The first four months of my visit were spent in various parts of
the Sarawak River, from Santubong at its mouth up to the picturesque
limestone mountains and Chinese gold-fields of Bow and Bede. This part
of the country has been so frequently described that I shall pass it
over, especially as, owing to its being the height of the wet season, my
collections were comparatively poor and insignificant.

In March 1865 I determined to go to the coalworks which were being
opened near the Simunjon River, a small branch of the Sadong, a river
east of Sarawak and between it and the Batang-Lupar. The Simunjon enters
the Sadong River about twenty miles up. It is very narrow and very
winding, and much overshadowed by the lofty forest, which sometimes
almost meets over it. The whole country between it and the sea is a
perfectly level forest-covered swamp, out of which rise a few isolated
hills, at the foot of one of which the works are situated. From the
landing-place to the hill a Dyak road had been formed, which consisted
solely of tree-trunks laid end to end. Along these the barefooted
natives walk and carry heavy burdens with the greatest ease, but to a
booted European it is very slippery work, and when one's attention is
constantly attracted by the various objects of interest around, a few
tumbles into the bog are almost inevitable. During my first walk along
this road I saw few insects or birds, but noticed some very handsome
orchids in flower, of the genus Coelogyne, a group which I afterwards
found to be very abundant, and characteristic of the district. On the
slope of the hill near its foot a patch of forest had been cleared away,
and several rule houses erected, in which were residing Mr. Coulson
the engineer, and a number of Chinese workmen. I was at first kin