WCP6535

[1] [p. 498]

"Sarawak, March 12, 1874.

"I have forwarded to you, through Dr. Jessopp, of Norwich, two Rhinoceros-horns, obtained in the Bazaar at Sibu, the principal station of the Sarawak Government in the Rejang river.

"These specimens, together with three others, the largest of which, measured perpendicularly, stood 8½ inches high, were brought probably from the country about the headwaters of the Koti; but there [2] [p. 499] is reason to believe that the animal is distributed (though not abundantly) throughout the upper course of the Rejang, Kapuas, Koti, Balungan, and, perhaps, all the larger streams of the island. Both horns and teeth are brought to Sibu by natives arriving from the above district[s] for purposes of trade; and these articles being valued by Chinese and Malays for their supposed medicinal properties, at once command a ready sale, so that they disappear generally beyond hope of recovery.

"The Kayans call the animal 'Temadu;' and the country at the head of the Rejang, i.e. for the last five days of its course, would seem to be well suited to be the habitat of this bulky herbivore, being described as destitute of any settled human population, and as affording stretches of tolerably level and grassy country which affords pasture to herds of a species of wild Ox. The horns of the latter are often to be purchased at Sibu ; but I have never seen a skin or a skull. The general close affinity between the faunas of Borneo and Sumatra suggests that a Bornean Rhinoceros would be found to be furnished with two horns ; and, in fact, natives describe it as being so.

"It is very long since I have seen the horns of any species of Rhinoceros; but, so far as my memory serves, the large one I send is unlike that of the R. sumatrensis."