trouble being that they could not get their debts paid,
and had, in short, been swindled out of their money.
There were several Sarawak Malays there, but the
majority of the people were Sulumen. They said that
Tampias was eight days’ journey up the river, and
that an hour’s rain was enough to flood the stream.
In the wet season the Labuk must be terrible: a rise
of at least twenty feet above its present level, with an
irresistible current. Trees of enormous size are piled
up on the ban k s; and even away in the jungle lie
trunks of trees which have been swept there by the
flood. The amount of denudation effected by these
tropical rivers is enormous; vast beds of rolled pebbles,
consisting of quartzite, quartz, serpentine, mica
schist, porphyritic granite, &c., are to be seen all along
the Labuk.
. About noon the rain began, and wetted us most
thoroughly. We, however, pushed on, and camped in
th e wet on a stone bank.
March 8th.—Waited until eleven o’clock for Smith
and party to come up. The hills in this country are
composed largely of rich clayey ironstone; and, indeed,
in one place near our last night’s camping-ground,
where there had been a landslip, the exposure showed
a bright red irongtone, which in England would have
been jumped at as a source of wealth. On both banks
of the river, at about a mile distant from the water,
rise the Labuk hills, heights varying from 500 to
1000 and 2000 feet. To-day we passed a little village
still on the right bank; all the villages seem to be
built on the right bank. The population consists of
forty-five people, and the headman is, called Tuan
Imum, being a kind of magistrate in the Labuk.
iii
AT WORK ON THE LABUK RIVER.
From a drawing by W. H. Margetson. To face page 180.