It is on the East Coast only that elephants and rhinoceros, called Gajah and Badak respectively, are found. The elephant is the same as the Indian one and is fairly abundant; the rhinoceros is Rhinoceros sumatranus, and is not so frequently met with.
The elephant in Borneo is a timid animal and, therefore, difficult to come up with in the thick jungle. None have been shot by Europeans so far, but the natives, who can walk through the forest so much more quietly, sometimes shoot them, and dead tusks are also often brought in for sale.
The natives in the East Coast are very few in numbers and on neither coast is there any tribe of professional hunters, or shikaris, as in India and Ceylon, so that, although game abounds, there are not, at present, such facilities for Europeans desirous of engaging in sport as in the countries named.[29]
A little Malay bear occurs in Borneo, but is not often met with, and is not a formidable animal.
My readers all know that Borneo is the home of the Orang-utan or Mias, as it is called by the natives. No better description of the animal could be desired than that given by Wallace in his "Malay Archipelago." There is an excellent picture of a young one in the second volume of Dr. Guillemard's "Cruise of the Marchesa." Another curious monkey, common in mangrove swamps, is the long-nosed ape, or Pakatan, which possesses a fleshy probosis some three inches long. It is difficult to tame, and does not live long in captivity.
As in Sumatra, which Borneo much resembles in its fauna and flora, the peacock is absent, and its place taken by the Argus pheasant. Other handsome pheasants are the Fireback and the Bulwer pheasants, the latter so named after Governor Sir Henry Bulwer who took the first specimen home in 1874. These pheasants do not rise in the jungle and are, therefore, uninteresting to the Borneo sportsman. They are frequently trapped by the natives. There are many kinds of pigeons, which afford good sport. Snipe occur, but not plentifully. Curlew are numerous in some localities, but very wild. The small China quail are abundant on cleared spaces, as also is the painted plover, but cleared spaces in Borneo are somewhat few and far between. So much for sport in the new Colony.
Let me conclude my paper by quoting the motto of the British North Borneo Company—Pergo et perago—I under take a thing and go through with it. Dogged persistence has, so far, given the Territory a fair start on its way to prosperity, and the same perseverance will, in time, be assuredly rewarded by complete success.[30]
W. H. TREACHER.
P.S.—I cannot close this article without expressing my great obligations to Mr. C. V. Creagh, the present Governor of North Borneo, and to Mr. Kindersley, the Secretary to the Company in London, for information which has been incorporated in these notes.
Footnotes: