and here and there a crane, majestically stalking among
the crops. At our halting-place the river is very shallow,
its high banks being fringed with groves of cocoa-nuts
and bananas; and in one or two places I noted
neatly-fenced and well-kept gardens descending nearly
to the water’s edge. In these were sweet potatoes,
cucumbers, maize, and “ kaladi,” or Caladium escu-
lentum. The women seemed to be the principal cultivators
of these little plots, and we could see them at
work among the garden crops here and there as we
passed along.
Here we noticed a lovely palm for the first time—a
caryota—having dark green plumose foliage, the pinnae
abruptly jagged, and notched along its margins. As we
partook of our luncheon, an intelligent old native came
along, and sent our men to his garden, which he pointed
out to us, for some green cocoa-nuts, so that we obtained
a delicious draught, which we found very refreshing after
our hot walk. He was very talkative, and begged a
little brandy; and he also gladly accepted the seeds of
a fine pomolo (Citrus decumana), to plant in his garden.
We did not cross the stream here, but plunged on
beside the river, following a narrow, muddy buffalo
track, which in places resembled a tunnel, being completely
embowered with tall grasses, bound together
with large convolvuli and other creeping and climbing
plants.
A heavy walk of a couple of hours brought us to the
first group of Dusun houses, which stood on a bit of
rising ground close beside the stream, being surrounded
by a grove of cocoa-nut palms and other fruit-trees.
We stayed here to rest our followers, and while waiting
shot several birds on the surrounding trees. Let not the
gentle reader blame us for wanton destruction ! There
was “ method in our madness;” we did not “ kill for
sport,” but only for the advancement of learning, or for
food.
About half a mile beyond we came to a fording-place
in the stream, and descending the slippery clay banks,
we crossed the river, which in places reached up to our
waists; and in one place the current was rather too
strong to be pleasant. Reaching the other side, our
way lay along an abandoned bed of the stream for some
distance. The old shingly bed was in some places quite
thickly covered with Celosia argentea, forming compact
little bushes, two feet high, every branchlet terminated
by a rose-tipped spike of silvery bracts, forming, as seen
here, a very pretty object.
We reached the Dusan village of Bawang (bawang, in
the Dusun dialect river) about four o’clock, after
fording a creek up to our necks, and indeed we were both
tired and hungry. We took refuge in a house, which
stood on the bank, quite close to the river, and our men
soon had several fires ablaze on the pebbly beach below.
We pulled off our wet things, and enjoyed a bath in the
bubbling stream, and then a nice rub, dry and clean
clothes, made us quite comfortable by dinner time.
“ Bongsur,” one of the bird hunters, brought in two
or three very pretty birds here; and Mr. Veitch
added a black, red-bellied squirrel (“ basing ”) to our
collection.
We slept the sleep of the weary; and the following
morning pushed on up the slope beyond the village.
The shady jungle through which we passed ere we
began to ascend was thickly carpeted with selaginellas,
S. Wallichii being especially luxuriant. S. caulescens
drooped from the moist rocks here and there vei'y
gracefully. We found the climbing rather arduous work,
G 2