ts are tremendous
while they last, and squalls of wind are frequent and violent, almost
invariably preceding a downpour. Over such an extensive area there is,
of course, great variety in the climatic character of different
districts, especially when viewed in relation to health. Some places,
such as Bidi in Sarawak, for instance, are notoriously unhealthy; but
from the statistics of the Dutch government, and the records of Sarawak
and British North Borneo, it would appear that the European in Borneo
has in general not appreciably more to fear than his fellow in Java, or
in the Federated Malay States of the Malayan Peninsula. Among the native
races the prevailing diseases, apart from those of a malarial origin,
are chiefly such as arise from bad and insufficient food, from
intemperance, and from want of cleanliness. The habit of allowing their
meat to putrefy before regarding it as fit for food, and of encouraging
children of tender age to drink to intoxication, accounts for absence of
old folk and the heavy mortality which are to be observed among the
Muruts of British North Borneo and some of the other more debased tribes
of the interior of the island. Scrofula and various forms of lupus are
common among the natives throughout the country and especially in the
interior; elephantiasis is frequently met with on the coast. Smallpox,
dysentery and fevers, frequently of a bilious character, are endemic and
occasionally epidemic. Cholera breaks out from time to time and works
great havoc, as was the case in 1903 when one of the raja of Sarawak's
punitive expeditions was stricken while ascending the Limbang river by
boat, and lost many hundreds of its numbers before the coast could be
regained. Ophthalmia is common and sometimes will attack whole tribes.
About one sixth of the native population of the interior, and a smaller
proportion of those living on the coast, suffer from a kind of ringworm
called _kurap_, which also prevails almost universally among the Sakai
and Semang, the aboriginal hill tribes of the Malayan Peninsula. The
disease is believed to be aggravated by chronic anaemia. Consumption is
not uncommon.

_Fauna_.--The fauna of Borneo comprises a large variety of species, many
of which are numerically of great importance. Among the quadrupeds the
most remarkable is the orang-utan (Malay, _orang utan_, i.e. jungle
man), as the huge ape, called _mias_ or _mayas_ by the natives, is named
by Europeans. Numerous speci