down the thickly-wooded side of the hill, over a very
rocky bed. “ Here is the coal,” said my guide, when
we had got nearly to the top, pointing to some large
black boulders in the middle of the stream. I saw at
once that the mineral was not coal, and on breaking
• • • . P
a piece and examining with the glass, I recognized
serpentine. A little higher up the river I found the
rock in situ, occurring with afunginous dolomite which
weathers brown. The serpentine is brined very much
with quartz, and the stream was full of rolled pebbles
of this mineral.
IX.
At a future date it will be advisable to clear some
jungle here and search this district with the boring-
machine. I found no other minerals, save iron pyrites,
in the quartz in the stream. We retraced our steps
and got back to Sheriff Ali’s house at 12.80, when I
told him his minerals were P no good.” At one o’clock
we left in the prahu and arrived at the mouth of the
Bongon River at three.
Arrived at Sheriff Ibea’s town of Bongon at ten
o’clock at night.
Jan. 8th.—I spent the day in paying visits to the
various Sheriffs. Sheriff Shea, Sheriff Mohameb, and
Sheriff “ Hamid ” all received me very kindly. I procured
four buffaloes and intend to start for TimbongO
Batu to-morrow to take a preliminary view of the
country before going into the interior, which I shall do
in the dry season.
Jan. 9th.—Left Bongon at 10 a.m. My party consisted
of myself and five men. We arrived at Datu
Malunad’s kampong at twelve after a hard ride on
buffaloes, sinking often up to our knees in mud,
although seated on the top of- our “ steeds.” Datu
Malunad is a son of Datu Malunad of Tamemisan, on
the south-west of Marudu Bay. The rain began very
soon after we left Datu Malunad’s, and continued to
fall in torrents all the way to Timpong Batu, where
we arrived at four o’clock wet through and covered
with mud. Riding on buffaloes is picturesque but not
pleasant, trying all the time to keep one’s seat, avoid
fallen trees, and the constant danger of having one’s
head taken off by overhanging branches with one’s
feet hanging down without support, and altogether in
a most precarious situation.
Jan. 1 0 th—-The Timbong Batu Dusuns treated us
very kindly, and this morning, as it was fine, for two
hours I went out to examine the river bed. This was
the only opportunity I had during my stay of
examining the district for minerals. I picked up some
rolled pebbles of serpentine, and some schistose pebbles
from metamorphic rocks in the interior. Also quartz,
both pure and ferruginous; containing iron pyrites, and
it may perhaps on assay yield some gold and silver. I
found a piece of a hard bituminous mineral, which can
hardly be classed either as a coal V ■ or a brown coal.- - I
send home a sample (No. 1 Bongon). I shall shortly
make an analysis, and shall enclose results in my next
reports.
Jan. 11 ¿A—I t commenced to rain again at twelve
o’clock yesterday, and rained all day and night, and it
is still raining without any sign of stopping. We are
shut up at the Dusuns’, and the Bongon has become an
impassable torrent.
Jan. 12th.— Impossible, the Dusuns say, to get back