especially in the interior; elephantiasis is frequently met with on the coast. Smallpox, dysentery and fevers, frequently of a bilious character, are endemic and occasionally epidemic. Cholera breaks out from time to time and works great havoc, as was the case in 1903 when one of the raja of Sarawak’s punitive expeditions was stricken while ascending the Limbang river by boat, and lost many hundreds of its numbers before the coast could be regained. Ophthalmia is common and sometimes will attack whole tribes. About one sixth of the native population of the interior, and a smaller proportion of those living on the coast, suffer from a kind of ringworm called kurap, which also prevails almost universally among the Sakai and Semang, the aboriginal hill tribes of the Malayan Peninsula. The disease is believed to be aggravated by chronic anaemia. Consumption is not uncommon.
Fauna.—The fauna of Borneo comprises a large variety of species, many of which are numerically of great importance. Among the quadrupeds the most remarkable is the orang-utan (Malay, ôrang ûtan, i.e. jungle man), as the huge ape, called mias or mâyas by the natives, is named by Europeans. Numerous species of monkey are found in Borneo, including the wahwah, a kind of gibbon, a creature far more human in appearance and habits than the orang-utan, and several Semnopitheci, such as the long-nosed ape and the golden-black or chrysomelas. The large-eyed Stenops tardigradus also deserves mention. The larger beasts of prey are not met with, and little check is therefore put on the natural fecundity of the graminivorous species. A small panther and the clouded tiger (so called)—Felis macroscelis—are the largest animals of the cat kind that occur in Borneo. The Bengal tiger is not found. The Malay or honey-bear is very common. The rhinoceros and the elephant both occur in the northern part of the island, though both are somewhat rare, and in this connexion it should be noted that the distribution of quadrupeds as between Borneo, Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula is somewhat peculiar and seemingly somewhat capricious. Many quadrupeds, such as the honey-bear and the rhinoceros, are common to all, but while the tiger is common both in the Malayan Peninsula and in Sumatra, it does not occur in Borneo; the elephant, so common in the peninsula, and found in Borneo, is unknown in Sumatra; and the orang-utan, so plentiful in parts of Borneo and parts of Sumatra, has never been discovered in the Malay Peninsula. It has been suggested, but with very scant measure of probability, that the existence of elephants in Borneo, whose confinement to a single district is remarkable and unexplained, is due to importation; and the fact is on record that when Magellan’s ships visited Brunei in 1522 tame elephants were in use at the court of the sultan of Brunei. Wild oxen of the Sunda race, not to be in any way confounded with the Malayan seladang or gaur, are rare, but the whole country swarms with wild swine, and the babirusa, a pig with curious horn-like tusks, is not uncommon. Alligators are found in most of the rivers, and the gavial is less frequently met with. Three or four species of deer are common, including the mouse-deer, or plandok, an animal of remarkable grace and beauty, about the size of a hare but considerably less heavy. Squirrels, flying-squirrels, porcupines, civet-cats, rats, bats, flying-foxes and lizards are found in great variety; snakes of various kinds, from the boa-constrictor downward, are abundant, while the forests swarm with tree-leeches, and the marshes with horse-leeches and frogs. A remarkable flying-frog was discovered by Professor A. R. Wallace. Birds are somewhat rare in some quarters. The most important are eagles, kites, vultures, falcons, owls, horn-bills, cranes, pheasants (notably the argus, fire-back and peacock-pheasants), partridges, ravens, crows, parrots, pigeons, woodpeckers, doves, snipe, quail and swallows. Of most of these birds several varieties are met with. The Cypselus esculentus, or edible-nest swift, is very common, and the nests, which are built mostly in limestone caves, are esteemed the best in the archipelago. Mosquitoes and sand-flies are the chief insect pests, and in some districts are very troublesome. Several kinds of parasitic jungle ticks cause much annoyance to men and to beasts. There are also two kinds of ants, the sěmut âpi (“fire ant”) and the sěmut lâda (“pepper ant”), whose bites are peculiarly painful. Hornets, bees and wasps of many varieties abound. The honey and the wax of the wild bee are collected by the natives. Butterflies and moths are remarkable for their number, size, variety and beauty. Beetles are no less numerously represented, as is to be expected in a country so richly wooded as Borneo. The swamps and rivers, as well as the surrounding seas, swarm with fish. The siawan is a species of fish found in the rivers and valued for its spawn, which is salted. The natives are expert and ingenious fishermen. Turtles, trepang and pearl-shell are of some commercial importance.
The dog, the cat, the pig, the domestic fowl (which is not very obviously related to the bantam of the woods), the buffalo, a smaller breed than that met with in the Malayan Peninsula, and in some districts bullocks of the Brahmin breed and small horses, are the principal domestic animals. The character of the country and the nomadic habits of many of the natives of the interior, who rarely occupy their villages for more than a few years in succession, have not proved favourable to pastoral modes of life. The buffaloes are used not only in agriculture, but also as beasts of burden, as draught-animals and for the saddle. Horses, introduced by Europeans and owned only by the wealthier classes, are found in Banjermasin and in Sarawak. In British North Borneo, and especially in the district of Tempasuk on the north-west coast, Borneo ponies, bred originally, it is supposed, from the stock which is indigenous to the Sulu archipelago, are common.
Flora.—The flora of Borneo is very rich, the greater portion of the surface of the island being clothed in luxuriant vegetation. The king of the forest is the tapan, which, rising to a great height without fork or branch, culminates in a splendid dome of foliage. The official seats of some of the chiefs are constructed from the wood of this tree. Iron-wood, remarkable for the durability of its timber, is abundant; it is used by the natives for the pillars of their homes and forms an article of export, chiefly to Hong-Kong. It is rivalled in hardness by the kâyu těmběsu. In all, about sixty kinds of timber of marketable quality are furnished in more or less profusion, but the difficulty of extraction, even in the regions situated in close proximity to the large waterways, renders it improbable that the timber trade of Borneo will attain to any very great dimensions until other and easier sources of supply have become exhausted. Palm-trees are abundant in great variety, including the nîpah, which is much used for thatching, the cabbage, fan, sugar, coco and sago palms. The last two furnish large supplies of food to the natives, some copra is exported, and sago factories, mostly in the hands of Chinese, prepare sago for the Dutch and British markets. Gutta-percha (gětah pěrcha in the vernacular), camphor, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, gambir and betel, or areca-nuts, are all produced in the island; most of the tropical fruits flourish, including the much-admired but, to the uninitiated, most evil-smelling durian, a large fruit with an exceedingly strong outer covering composed of stout pyramidal spikes, which grows upon the branches of a tall tree and occasionally in falling inflicts considerable injuries upon passers-by. Yams, several kinds of sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, pineapples, bananas and mangosteens are cultivated, as also are a large number of other fruits. Rice is grown in irrigated lands near the rivers and in the swamps, and also in rude clearings in the interior; sugar-cane of superior quality in Sambas and Montrado; cotton, sometimes exported in small quantities, on the banks of the Negara, a tributary of the Barito; tobacco, used very largely now in the production of cigars, in various parts of northern Borneo; and tobacco for native consumption, which is of small commercial importance, is cultivated in most parts of the island. Indigo, coffee and pepper have been cultivated since 1855 in the western division of Dutch Borneo. Among the more beautiful of the flowering plants are rhododendrons, orchids and pitcher-plants—the latter reaching extraordinary development, especially in the northern districts about Kinabalu. Epiphytous plants are very common, many that are usually independent assuming here the parasitic character; the Vanda lowii, for example, grows on the
