It is very curious that the fish should frequent this bay so very irregularly. Some years the supplies are ample, at other seasons it scarcely pays to search for them. The dugong, called by the Malays duyong, is occasionally secured off the small islands in this bay; there is a famous fisherman in Sarawak, named Pa Sipi, who is expert in all accomplishments appertaining to his craft, and I have heard the natives say that when a duyong is seen, he used cautiously to approach it, and being always the foremost man, he hurled his fishing spear at it, and very shortly after, if he were obliged to let go his hold of the weapon, the animal would rise again to the surface. The fishing spear is called a sarampang, and is usually made with a treble-pronged iron point, fitted loosely into the end of the spear, and secured by a stout lashing of rattans to the wood. When the iron has entered into the animal, it comes loose from the shaft of the spear, which is then only held to it by the rattan rope, and it would be impossible for an animal thus encumbered to escape far. Pa Sipi brought us once a very fine duyong, which measured nearly eight feet in length, and its flesh tasted very much like coarse beef. We moved along under easy sail, and anchored near the Muaratabas entrance of the Sarawak river. The land here is very bold, particularly Sipang and Po points. We sent a boat up the Santubong as we passed the entrance, to give notice at the town of our arrival, and in the evening we landed for a walk in a deep nook to the westward of Point Po; here, just above the sandy beach, were the graves of several Englishmen, among others of Lieutenant Mathews, of H.M.S. _Iris_: a simple granite stone marked the spot; the wild pigs, however, had desecrated the graves and overturned the tablet; so the latter was subsequently removed to the church-yard in Sarawak. We amused ourselves about the edges of the forest in searching for a good watering-place. To me this evening was inexpressibly delightful, as I wandered about this quiet pretty spot, and thought how agreeable an introduction it was to Bornean life. After dark we waded to our boats, and the crews enlivened the evening by singing in chorus till we neared the ship. Twenty deep voices sounded well over this still and starlit sea. For the first time I saw some Lingga Dayaks to-day, and as they happened to be dressed as Malays, my first impression was that it would be difficult to distinguish between them.