Travel Reference
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headlong down. I was exceedingly struck by the ingenuity of this mode of climbing, and the
admirable manner in which the peculiar properties of the bamboo were made available. The
ladder itself was perfectly safe, since if any one peg were loose or faulty, and gave way, the
strain would be thrown on several others above and below it. I now understood the use of
the line of bamboo pegs sticking in trees, which I had often seen, and wondered for what
purpose they could have been put there. This animal was almost identical in size and ap-
pearance with the one I had obtained at Semábang, and was the only other male specimen of
the Simia morio which I obtained. It is now in the Derby Museum.
I afterwards shot two adult females and two young ones of different ages, all of which I
preserved. One of the females, with several young ones, was feeding on a Durian tree with
unripe fruit; and as soon as she saw us she began breaking off branches and the great spiny
fruits with every appearance of rage, causing such a shower of missiles as effectually kept
us from approaching too near the tree. This habit of throwing down branches when irritated
has been doubted, but I have, as here narrated, observed it myself on at least three separate
occasions. It was however always the female Mias who behaved in this way, and it may be
that the male, trusting more to his great strength and his powerful canine teeth, is not afraid
of any other animal, and does not want to drive them away, while the parental instinct of the
female leads her to adopt this mode of defending herself and her young ones.
In preparing the skins and skeletons of these animals, I was much troubled by the Dyak
dogs, which, being always kept in a state of semi-starvation, are ravenous for animal food. I
had a great iron pan, in which I boiled the bones to make skeletons, and at night I covered
this over with boards, and put heavy stones upon it; but the dogs managed to remove these
and carried away the greater part of one of my specimens. On another occasion they gnawed
away a good deal of the upper leather of my strong boots, and even ate a piece of my
mosquito-curtain, where some lamp-oil had been spilt over it some weeks before.
On our return down the stream, we had the fortune to fall in with a very old male Mias,
feeding on some low trees growing in the water. The country was flooded for a long dis-
tance, but so full of trees and stumps that the laden boat could not be got in among them,
and if it could have been we should only have frightened the Mias away. I therefore got into
the water, which was nearly up to my waist, and waded on till I was near enough for a shot.
The difficulty then was to load my gun again, for I was so deep in the water that I could not
hold the gun sloping enough to pour the powder in. I therefore had to search for a shallow
place, and after several shots under these trying circumstances, I was delighted to see the
monstrous animal roll over into the water. I now towed him after me to the stream, but the
Malays objected to have the animal put into the boat, and he was so heavy that I could not
