Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra13141884roya).pdf/284

 of Gantisan stood. A low neck of land separates Sapangar bay at this point from the adjacent basin of the Karimbunai river. Coal is reported by the natives at this point. The water supply is good, and there is secure anchorage close inshore protected from both monsoons. A very slight cutting would suffice to pierce this narrow collar, and would thus render Gautîsan, the natural outlet of the trade of the Karimbunai, Mengkâbong and Tawâran rivers. The soil of the whole of this dividing ridge is apparently lateritic sandstone.

Descending into the valley of the Karimbunai river, a short walk down its left bank brought us to the village of that name, the headquarters of Pangêran, the Governor of the district, a feudatory of the Sultan of Brunci and a member of the former BruueiBrunei [sic] royal family. On examining an outcrop of the strata on the river bank, the strike proved to be N.E. with a dip of about 80° bed rock sandstone. After an interview with the old Paugêran, a boat was procured in which we paddled down to the common mouth of the Karimbunai and Mengkabong rivers. This is remarkably narrow and would seem to have been contracted by the formation of a high sandbank which has been, and is being, pushed southwards by the influence of the north-east monsoon and of the heavy swell from the China Sea, the action of the opposing monsoon being greatly neutralized by the protection afforded by the projecting bluff of Gaya head to the south-westward. The entrance is said to be fairly deep, but would probably be impracticable in heavy north-westerly winds. Paddling up the broad expanse of the Mengkabong river, our course, on the average. being about E. by N., we came upon some fine reaches of water. Numerous channels branched off from the main one, which was flanked to the northward by mangrove growth, and to the south and east by grassy hills, while a bold range towered up to the S.E. A few miles further brought us to a point at which the river expands into a large, lake-like sheet of water, from the upper end of which a perfect network of broad channels diverge, dotted in all directions with Bajau villages extending far away up to the foot of the mountains.