The western,.or south-western source comes down from
a mountain named Waleigh-'waleigh (house), a part of
the northern Kina Balu spur. As we travelled along,
I noticed in a small cave in the rock some twenty
or thirty swallows’ nests. They were greenish-white
below, and fixed to the rock by a white glutinous substance.
.They are said to be worth about $1 per catty.
Any description could not do justice to the difficulty
of our ro ad ; and the dangers and troubles we passed
through could only have been compensated by a great
mineral find. I t commenced to rain in torrents about
one o’clock, and continued until about four. All this
time we were making our way slowly ahead, clinging
by hands and feet to the slippery moss, and trying
to prevent ourselves from being precipitated over the
falls, or breaking our necks and heads on enormous
stones. At four, being quite wet through, we camped
in a cave, or rather a hole formed of gigantic fallen
rocks, one fifty feet and one forty feet high, with eight
or ten of fifteen feet and upwards in height, forming
sides to the cave, which also ran some ten or twenty
feet into the living rock. The outer apartment was
filled with swallows, while the inner one was tenanted
by bats, whose guano covered the floor to a depth
of about eighteen inches—there being the same
thickness of birds’ guano in the outer cave. A
very rank, mouldy, badger-like smell pervaded the
place, and on the roof were about 100 of the same
nests previously noted. I t was a romantic night
sleeping there, with the men stowed away in crevices
and holes,, in the cliffs, the vast nature of the latter
being most impressive. The roar of the water outside,
as it dashed over fall after fall, the glare of the campfire
on rock and tree, the uncertainty of ever being
able to get back or forwards, with provisions for
only a few days, and not a living soul in the whole
country round ! The true primeval forest of Borneo
reigns supreme in these hilly fastnesses; and the
camphor and gutta trees near th e . source of the
Kinoram have yet to feel the axe of the trader and the
pioneer. We are now up the river about seven miles,
D. S.W. Seven miles of very hard travelling, and if
rain should flood the stream, retreat will be quite
impossible.
The rocks in the river-bed consist of boulders of
limestone, sandstone, syenites, serpentine greenstone,
and a conglomerate which rapidly decomposes.
Aug. 3rd.—Our direction to-day varied with the
turns of the river, at first W.N.W., but afterwards
W.S.W., this being the true course. Leeches and
ticks (the latter especially) added horrors to our way.
When Mr. Beveridge was up here before, a tick got
into his arm, and the operation of removing it was very
painful. We passed through immense ravines, with
cliffs in one case rising 500 and 600 feet from the riverbed.
Vast boulders fallen from these enormous
“ walls ” lay strewn all around us, some of them of
great height. Over these the men had to climb, with
packs on their backs, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that they got along. In the afternoon we
arrived at a level spot between the hills, where a small
island divides the river. Here we camped for the
night. The chiefs of Marak-Parak and Pengopuyan
were down on the river on a fishing expedition, having
come over the hills to the north of us, where they say
there is an easy pass into Lobah,