Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra13141884roya).pdf/292

 field, or rather plain, must, at a rough estimate, have been some 6006,000 [sic] acres in extent, the whole being marked off by the land-marks of the different proprietors. It was intersected by the Longhap, a small, canal-like stream. The water supply for purposes of irrigation is unlimited, the levels are well laid out and the banks neatly kept up, a path running along the ridge of each. It would, however, be of great benefit to the district were a fresh stock of paddy introduced, larger in the ear, the present stock being small in the grain and shewing signs of deterioration. There are some 80 to 100 Chinese settled on the Putatan, the bulk of them being the descendants of former Chinese settlers, who have intermarried with the Dusuns and shew evidence of mixed blood. These Chinese are not agriculturists, nor, as far as I could learn, landed proprietors, but are principally distillers, manufacturing arrack, which they barter with the Dusuns. The soil is decidedly superior to that of the valleys of the Papar and Kimanis rivers to the South, and there is an almost total absence of swamp, owing, no doubt, to the country being all cleared, and the complete system of drainage. The surface configuration is that of a practically level plain studded with numerous small hills, on which the timber has wisely been left standing. The paddy fields extend up to the very bases of these. In moist tracts and along the lines of water-courses, some sago is grown, but the quantity of this is inconsiderable. Some five piculs of gutta come down from the interior monthly, and tobacco, camphor, beeswax and armadillo skins form the staple exports. The Brunei Government imposes a tax of from $6 to $9 per head per annum, or about $200 for each pangkalan, or village landing place. The number of the villages is remarkable, and in some parts of the upper portion of the river, they lic in sight of, and sometimes quite contiguous to, one another. The general aspect of the whole country is that of an orderly, industrious and civilized community, and a very fair prospect unfolds itself to the eye of one looking forth from the summit of one of the picturesque little hills above referred to, over the far stretching expanse of green paddy plains, clustering villages and detached homesteads nestling amid their