at sea at the distance of six or seven miles from the
mouths: these overflowings fertilize the banks and adjacent country,
and render the shores of Borneo, like the plains of Egypt, luxuriantly
rich. Susceptible of the highest possible culture, particularly in
wet grain, in the dry season the coast, from these overflowings,
presents to the eye the richest enameled fields of full grown grass
for miles around. It is at this season that whole herds of wild cattle
range down from the mountains in the interior to fatten on the plains,
but during the wet season they ascend to their hills.

The whole of the north, the northwest, and the center of Borneo is
extremely mountainous. The greatest portion of the ancient kingdom
of Borneo Proper is extremely elevated. That of Kiney Baulu, or
St. Peter's Mount, in latitude 6 deg. north, is perhaps one of the
highest mountains known. The country about Sambas, Pontiana, and
Sukadana is occasionally interspersed with a few ranges of hills,
otherwise the land here might be deemed low. But to the southward,
and more particularly to the east, in the Straits of Macassar, it
is very low. The shore in these latter places is extremely moist and
swampy, but the interior is said to be dry.

The common charts of Borneo will show the innumerable rivers that
water this vast island in every possible direction; but it is worthy of
remark, that all the principal rivers on this island have their main
source in a large lake in the vicinity of that stupendous mountain
before mentioned, Kiney Baulu. The river Benjarmasing takes its rise
from thence, and after traversing in all its windings a distance of
1500 miles, intersecting the island into two parts, falls into the
Java sea. Its rise and fall is said to be twelve feet, and it has
only nine feet at low water on the bar. It is said to have numberless
villages scattered on its banks; but I have obtained no particular
accounts of them, or their produce.

The great river of Borneo Proper is certainly the finest on the
island. It is a deep, navigable, and majestic stream; it has three
fathoms upon the bar at low water; the rise and fall is, I believe,
fifteen feet; there are docks here for Chinese junks of five or six
hundred tons, and a first-rate ship of war might get up far above
the town. The country, too, is populous, productive, and healthy. The
southern branch of this river has been well surveyed, but the branch
leading to the Marut country is lit