and a complicated pyramid of roots descending for seventy or eighty feet
to the ground below, and so spreading on every side, that one can stand
in the very centre with the trunk of the tree immediately overhead.
Trees of this character are found all over the Archipelago, and the
accompanying illustration (taken from one which I often visited in the
Aru Islands) will convey some idea of their general character. I believe
that they originate as parasites, from seeds carried by birds and
dropped in the fork of some lofty tree. Hence descend aerial roots,
clasping and ultimately destroying the supporting tree, which is in time
entirely replaced by the humble plant which was at first dependent upon
it. Thus we have an actual struggle for life in the vegetable kingdom,
not less fatal to the vanquished than the struggles among animals which
we can so much more easily observe and understand. The advantage of
quicker access to light and warmth and air, which is gained in one way
by climbing plants, is here obtained by a forest tree, which has the
means of starting in life at an elevation which others can only attain
after many years of growth, and then only when the fall of some other
tree has made room for then. Thus it is that in the warm and moist and
equable climate of the tropics, each available station is seized upon
and becomes the means of developing new forms of life especially adapted
to occupy it.
On reaching Sarawak early in December, I found there would not be an
opportunity of returning to Singapore until the latter end of January.
I therefore accepted Sir James Brooke's invitation to spend a week with
him and Mr. St. John at his cottage on Peninjauh. This is a very steep
pyramidal mountain of crystalline basaltic rock, about a thousand feet
high, and covered with luxuriant forest. There are three Dyak villages
upon it, and on a little platform near the summit is the rude wooden
lodge where the English Rajah was accustomed to go for relaxation and
cool fresh air. It is only twenty miles up the river, but the road
up the mountain is a succession of ladders on the face of precipices,
bamboo bridges over gullies and chasms, and slippery paths over rocks
and tree-trunks and huge boulders as big as houses. A cool spring under
an overhanging rock just below the cottage furnished us with refreshing
baths and delicious drinking water, and the Dyaks brought us daily
heaped-up baskets of Mangosteens and Lansats, two of the most delicious
of the subacid tropical fruits. We returned to Sarawak for Christmas
(the second I had spent with Sir James Brooke), when all the Europeans
both in the town and from the out-stations enjoyed the hospitality of
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