The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

v.] BORNEO—JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 55together. I might have known that such small streams could notproduce such vast quantities of well-rounded pebbles of the veryhardestmaterials. They had evidently been formed in past ages,by the action of some continental stream orseabeach, before thegreat island of Borneo had risen from the ocean. The existenceof such a system of hills and valleys reproducing in miniature allthe features of a great mountain region, has an important bearingon the modern theoiy, that the form of the ground is mainly dueto atmospheric rather than to subterranean action. When wehave a number of branching valleys and ravines running inmany different directions within a square mile, it seems hardlypossible to impute their formation, or even their origination, torents and fissures produced by earthquakes. On the other hand,the nature of the rock, so easily decomposed and removed bywater, and the known action of the abundant tropical rains, ai-ein this case, at least, quite sufficient causes for the pi'oduction ofsuch valleys. But the resemblance between their forms and outlines,their mode of divergence, and the slopes and ridges thatdivide them, and those of the grand mountain scenery of theHimalayas, is so remarkable, that we are forcibly led to the conclusionthat the forces at work in the two cases have been thesame, difiering only in the time they have been in action, andthe nature of the material they have had to work upon.About noon we reached the callage of Menyerry, beautifullysituated on a spur of the mountain about 600 feet abo\'e thevallej^, and affording a delightful view of the mountains of thispart of Borneo. I here got a sight of Penrissen Mountain at thehead of the Sarawak River, and one of the highest in the district,rising to about 6,000 feet above the sea. To the south the Eowan,and further off the Untowan Mountains in the Dutch territory,appeared equally lofty. Descending from- ^lenyerry we againci'ossed the Kayan, which bends round the spur, and ascended tothe pass which divides the Sadong and Sarawak vallej^s, andwhich is about 2,000 feet high. The descent from this point wasvery fine.A stream, deep in a rocky gorge, rushed on each sideof us, to one of which we gradually descended, jmssing over manylateral gulleys and along the faces of some ijrecipices by meansof native bamboo bridges. Some of these were several hundredfeet long and fifty or sixty high, a single smooth bamboo fourinches in diameter forming the only pathway, while a slenderhandrail of the same material was often so shaky that it couldonly be used as a guide rather than a support.Late in the afternoon we reached Sodos, situated on a spurbetween two streams, but so surrounded by fruit trees thatlittle could be seen of the country. Tlie house was spacious,clean, and comfortable, and the people very obliging. ]\Iany ofthe women and children had never seen a white man before, andwere very sceptical as to my being the same colour all over, asmy face. They begged me to show them my arms and body, andthey were so kind and good-tempered that I felt bound to give