e. Of this total about three-fourths are
found in the districts of the west coast. The seashore and the country
bordering closely on the west coast are inhabited chiefly by Dusuns, by
Kadayans, by Bajaus and Ilanuns--both Malayan tribes--and by Brunei
Malays. The east coast is very sparsely populated and its inhabitants
are mostly Bajaus and settlers from the neighbouring Sulu archipelago.
The interior is dotted with infrequent villages inhabited by Dusuns or
by Muruts, a village ordinarily consisting of a single long hut divided
up into cubicles, one for the use of each family, opening out on to a
common verandah along which the skulls captured by the tribe are
festooned. It has been customary to speak of these tribes as belonging
to the Dyak group, but the Muruts would certainly seem to be the
representatives of the aboriginal inhabitants of the island, and there
is much reason to think that the Dusuns also must be classed as distinct
from the Dyaks. The Dusun language, it is interesting to note, presents
very curious grammatical complications and refinements such as are not
to be found among the tongues spoken by any of the other peoples of the
Malayan Archipelago or the mainland of south-eastern Asia. Dusuns and
Muruts alike are in a very low state of civilization, and both indulge
inordinately in the use of intoxicating liquors of their own
manufacture.

_Settlements and Communication._--The company possesses a number of
small stations along the coast, of which Sandakan, with a population of
9 500, is the most important. The remainder which call for separate
mention are Lahat Datu on Darvel Bay on the east coast; Kudat on Marudu
Bay and Jesselton on Gaya Bay on the west coast. A railway of
indifferent construction runs along the west coast from Jesselton to
Weston on Brunei Bay, with a branch along the banks of the Padas to
Tenom above the rapids. It was originally intended that this should
eventually be extended across the territory to Cowie Harbour (Sabuko
Bay) on the east coast, but the extraordinary engineering difficulties
which oppose themselves to such an extension, the sparse population of
the territory, and the failure of the existing line to justify the
expectations entertained by its designers, combine to render the
prosecution of any such project highly improbable. Sandakan is connected
by telegraph with Mempakul on the west coast whence a cable runs to
Labuan and so gives telegraphic communication with