The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

I GEOGRAPHY
OF BORNEO 5
highest reading of one year {1906) at Kuching was
94°, the lowest 69°. Snow and frost are unknown,
except occasionally on the summits of the highest
mountains. Thunder - storms are frequent and
severe, but wind -storms are not commonly of any
great violence.
The abundant rainfall maintains a copious flow
of water down the many rivers at all times of the
year ; but the rivers are liable to rise rapidly many
feet above their normal level during days of ex-
ceptionally heavy rain. In their lower reaches,
where they traverse the alluvial plains and swamps,
the rivers wind slowly to the sea with many great
bends, and all the larger ones are navigable by
small steamers for many miles above their mouths :
thus a large steam launch can ascend the Rejang
for 160 miles, the Baram for 120, and some of
the rivers on the Dutch side for still greater
distances. The limit of such navigation is set
by beds of rock over which the rivers run shallow,
and which mark the beginnings of the middle
reaches. In these middle reaches, where the rivers
wind between the feet of the hills, long stretches
of deep smooth water alternate with others in
which the water runs with greater violence between
confining walls of rock, or spreads out in wide
rapids over stony bottoms. The upper reaches of
the rivers, where they descend rapidly from the
slopes of the mountains, are composed of long series
of shallow rapids and low waterfalls, alternating
at short intervals with still pools and calm shallows,
bounded by rock walls and great beds of waterworn
stones, which during the frequent freshets
are submerged by a boiling flood. The whole
river in these upper reaches is for the most part
roofed in by the overarching forest.
Practically the whole of Borneo, from the sea-
coast to the summits of the highest mountains, is