river Kinabatangan opens up the country; from the
north-east coast, and affords a good water-way by which
produce could he brought down to the coast ; but nearly
all the other rivers to the north-west, as far as Brunei,
are shallow and unnavigable, except for a mile or two
near the sea ; the roads inland being mere buffalo tracks,
and extremely irregular on the hill slopes.
The highest land and coolest climate ip. the island is
on Kina Balu (altitude 13,700 feet), a large mountain
about five days’journey from the mouth of the Tampassuk
river. The lower slopes of this range might possibly
grow good coffee; cinchona would be more likely to
succeed in the cool and fresh, but humid, climate of the
large spurs. The land here is in places deep and rich
with forest débris. In places good red land, with belts
of luxuriant bamboo amongst the sandstone boulders,
was seen. In estimating the richness of the soil, the
growth of a particular species of ginger common everywhere
was observed, on poor soils it rarely exceeded a
foot in height, but on some of the hill slopes near Kina
Balu it attains a height of six or eight feet.
The bamboo is also here more luxuriant than I observed
it elsewhere in the island, and the greater variety
and luxuriance of undergrowth shows that the climate or
soil, or both, are here better than near the coast. There
are rich alluvial deposits on the plains, where wet rice,
tapioca, sago, and fruits and vegetables generally, grow
well. Dry or hill rice, and the cocoanut palm, succeed
inland up to 3,000 feet elevation.
In Sarawak land culture has not proved to be so
remunerative as the antimony and gold mines; in the
north, however, this order of things might possibly be
reversed. An English company has been formed for the
purpose of colonising the northern part of the island,
and the cessions obtained comprise the whole northern
portion from Kimanis on the north-west coast to Sabuco-
on tbe east, the total area being computed at 20,000
square miles.
It seems to me, however, that Borneo is too far from
the great highway of eastern commerce to attract any'
but the most sanguine of planters and capitalists. I saw
very good land in Jahore on Gunong Puloi, and recent
explorations in Perak by Mr. Murton of Singapore (as
also by practical coffee planters from Ceylon, and tobacco-
growers from Province Wellesley) prove that, so far as
soil and climate are concerned, Perak, Quedah, and
Jahore offer equal advantages for land culture, besides
being much nearer to Singapore and the great sea-way
between England and the East.