gs have a stale fishy flavour,
are very sandy, and to my mind extremely nasty, although they are
considered a great delicacy by the natives, who eat them raw with
their curry.

By seven o'clock we were entering the Santubong mouth of the Sarawak
river. There are two entrances to this; the other, Moratabas, some few
miles farther down the coast, being the larger, is used by men-of-war
and other large craft. Vessels of 300 tons and under, however, always
use the Santubong entrance, excepting during the north-east monsoon,
when it is unsafe for vessels of any size, and Moratabas is always
used. The Santubong entrance is far superior to the other as far as
scenery is concerned. On the right bank of the river, its base
stretching for some way out to sea, stands the Peak of Santubong,
rising to a height of over 2,000 feet, and covered with dense forest
to a height of nearly 1,700 feet, from which point a perpendicular
sandstone precipice rises to the summit.[1] At the foot of the hill,
and almost hidden by trees which surround it, lies the little fishing
village of Santubong, inhabited by Chinese and Malay fishermen.
Kuching is supplied daily with fresh fish from this place. The
left-hand bank is a flat, swampy plain of impenetrable jungle, having
its river banks lined with mangroves and nipa palms. This extends for
about ten miles inland, until the mountain of Matang, which can
plainly be seen from the mouth, is reached, and on the near side of
which lies the capital, Kuching.

The journey up river from the mouth is flat and uninteresting, and
little is to be seen but nipa and other palms on either side, and
although Kuching is but seven miles from Santubong as the crow flies,
it is quite twenty by river. It was not till ten o'clock, therefore,
that signs of civilisation commenced, in the shape of a few Malay
houses built close to the water's edge. These are usually built in
the same manner on piles of wood of ten to fifteen feet high, the
walls and roof being made of "atap," or the leaf of the nipa-palm
dried, and the flooring of "lanties" or split bamboo.

The Chinese brick-yards and potteries of "Tanah Puteh," a suburb of
Kuching, came into view shortly after this, and immediately after this
Fort Margaret, which stands on a hill on the left-hand bank of the
river, and commands the entrance to Kuching, and, rounding the bend
that hides it from our view, we now come to the town itself, so unique
and picturesque a place