I Might Have Known That
Such Small Streams Could Not Produce Such Vast Quantities Of
Well-Rounded Pebbles Of The Very Hardest Materials.
They had
evidently been formed in past ages, by the action of some
continental stream or seabeach, before the great island of Borneo
had risen from the ocean.
The existence of such a system of hills
and valleys reproducing in miniature all the features of a great
mountain region, has an important bearing on the modern theory
that the form of the ground is mainly due to atmospheric rather
than to subterranean action. When we have a number of branching
valleys and ravines running in many different directions within a
square mile, it seems hardly possible to impute their formation,
or even their origination, to rents and fissures produced by
earthquakes. On the other hand, the nature of the rock, so easily
decomposed and removed by water, and the known action of the
abundant tropical rains, are in this case, at least, quite
sufficient causes for the production of such valleys. But the
resemblance between their forms and outlines, their mode of
divergence, and the slopes and ridges that divide them, and those
of the grand mountain scenery of the Himalayas, is so remarkable,
that we are forcibly led to the conclusion that the forces at
work in the two cases have been the same, differing only in the
time they have been in action, and the nature of the material
they have had to work upon.
About noon we reached the village of Menyerry, beautifully
situated on a spur of the mountain about 600 feet above the
valley, and affording a delightful view of the mountains of this
part of Borneo. I here got a sight of Penrissen Mountain, at the
head 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 Rowan, and further off the Untowan Mountains in the Dutch
territory appeared equally lofty. Descending from Menyerry we
again crossed the Kayan, which bends round the spur, and ascended
to the pass which divides the Sadong and Sarawak valleys, and
which is about 2,000 feet high. The descent from this point was
very fine. A stream, deep in a rocky gorge, rushed on each side
of us, to one of which we gradually descended, passing over many
lateral gullys and along the faces of some precipices by means
of native bamboo bridges. Some of these were several hundred feet
long and fifty or sixty high, a single smooth bamboo four inches
diameter forming the only pathway, while a slender handrail of
the same material was often so shaky that it could only be used as
a guide rather than a support.
Late in the afternoon we reached Sodos, situated on a spur
between two streams, but so surrounded by fruit trees that little
could be seen of the country. The house was spacious, clean and
comfortable, and the people very obliging.
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