Singapore. The
overland line from Mempakul to Sandakan, however, passes through
forest-clad and very difficult country, and telegraphic communication is
therefore subject to very frequent interruption. Telegraphic
communication between Mempakul and Kudat, via Jesselton, has also been
established and is more regularly and successfully maintained. The only
roads in the territory are bridle-paths in the immediate vicinity of the
company's principal stations. The Sabah Steamship Company, subsidized by
the Chartered Company, runs steamers along the coast, calling at all the
company's stations at which native produce is accumulated. A German firm
runs vessels at approximately bi-monthly intervals from Singapore to
Labuan and thence to Sandakan, calling in on occasion at Jesselton and
Kudat _en route_. There is also fairly frequent communication between
Sandakan and Hong-Kong, a journey of four days' steaming.

_Products and Trade._--The capabilities of the company's territory are
only dimly known. Coal has been found in the neighbourhood of Cowie
Harbour and elsewhere, but though its quality is believed to be as good
as that exported from Dutch Borneo, it is not yet known whether it
exists in payable quantities. Gold has been found in alluvial deposits
on the banks of some of the rivers of the east coast, but here again the
quantity available is still in serious doubt. The territory as a whole
has been very imperfectly examined by geologists, and no opinion can at
present be hazarded as to the mineral wealth or poverty of the company's
property. Traces of mineral oil, iron ores, copper, zinc and antimony
have been found, but the wealth of North Borneo still lies mainly in its
jungle produce. It possesses a great profusion of excellent timber, but
the difficulty of extraction has so far restricted the lumber industry
within somewhat modest limits. Gutta, rubber, rattans, mangrove-bark,
edible nuts, guano, edible birds'-nests, &c., are all valuable articles
of export. The principal cultivated produce is tobacco, sago, cocoanuts,
coffee, pepper, gambier and sugar-canes. Of these the tobacco and the
sago are the most important. Between 1886 and 1900 the value of the
tobacco crop increased from L471 to L200,000.

As is common throughout Malayan lands, the trade of North Borneo is
largely in the hands of Chinese shopkeepers who send their agents inland
to attend the _Tamus_ (Malay, _temu_, to meet) or fairs, which are the
recogni