Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/202

198 gauge affair, and the cars are tiny things, consisting of a platform about three feet by four. These are propelled by a man standing on the platform and pushing the car along with a pole. At Ban, in the neighborhood of our bungalow, there are the most important gold mines in Sarawak, and these trolleys are used for transporting ore and other freight. The "passenger coach" has a single seat with a foot-rest. These cars are extremely cranky, and upsets are usually part of the regular program. On an expedition from Bau, my trolley was a two man power affair, my propellers being a Sikh policeman and a convict in his charge. We were going along famously, when, at a sudden turn the car jumped the track, and the tiffin basket which was resting between my legs jumped also! There was an ominous sound of breaking glass and a strong alcoholic aroma pervaded the atmosphere. Alas! the bottle of Scotch our kind host had thoughtfully provided for our refreshment was shattered to fragments—the soda-water bottles survived.

No further accidents occurred, and we soon reached the end of the line and set off for the jungle-clad base of the limestone crags which were our objective point. After pushing through a dense growth of coarse grass and wading a couple of shallow streams we reached the base of the cliffs, and, after eating tiffin, proceeded to explore the caves with which the rocks are honeycombed. In one of these caves, whose opening lay a hundred feet or so above the foot of the cliff, and which could be reached only by scaling a crazy, more than half-rotten native ladder, the fern we were in search of was seen hanging from the roof of the cave, fifty feet or more above its floor, and quite out of reach. However, after we left, our host arranged with some of the Dayaks, who are accustomed to climb the walls of these caves in search of the edible bird's nests which abound in them, to return with ladders and poke down the clusters of ferns, which were afterwards sent us in Kuching.

These caves are of all shapes and sizes, and are the haunts of the peculiar swift, whose nests, composed of a mucilaginous secretion, are considered such a delicacy by the Chinese.

Matonia sarmentosa is known only from a few limestone caves in Sarawak. A second species, M. pectinata, was for a long time supposed to be confined to Mt. Ophir in Malacca. It has now been collected at several stations in the Malay Peninsula, and the adjacent islands. I collected it on Mt. Santubong, and it is also reported from Mt. Mattang, both mountains of Sarawak.

The next morning a second trolley trip took me to the locality where the second fern. Macroglossum Alidæ, for which I had come to Sarawak, had been discovered by my host, who was able to give me exact directions for finding it; and I shall not soon forget my sensations when, just where we had been told, we found our plant—a magnificent fern with stately erect fronds more than four yards long. A happy morning