purposes, to serve which, other materials would require much more labor and preparation. The bamboo is one of the most wonderful as well as beautiful productions of the tropics, and one of nature's most valuable gifts to uncivilized man.

The Dyak houses are all raised on posts, and are often two or three hundred feet long and forty or fifty feet wide. The floor is always formed of strips, about three inches wide, split from large bamboos, so that each may be laid nearly flat, and these are firmly tied down with rattan to the joists beneath. When well made, this is a delightful floor to walk upon barefooted, the rounded surfaces of the bamboo being very smooth and agreeable to the feet, while at the same time affording a firm hold.

But what is more important, they form, with a mat over them, an excellent bed, the elasticity of the bamboo and its rounded surface being far superior to a more rigid and flatter floor. Here we at once find a use for bamboo which can not be supplied so well by any other material without a vast amount of labor. Palms and other substitutes require much cutting and smoothing, and are not so good when finished.

When, however, a flat, close floor is required, excellent boards are made by splitting open large bamboos on one side only, and flattening them out so as to form thin boards eighteen inches wide and six feet long, with which some Dyaks floor their houses. These, with constant rubbing of the feet and the smoke of years, become dark and polished, like walnut or old oak, so that their real material can hardly be recognized.

What labor is here saved a savage, whose only tools are an ax and a knife, and who, if he wants boards, must hew them out of the solid trunk of a tree, and give days and weeks of labor to obtain a surface as smooth and beautiful as the bamboo thus treated affords him!

Again, if a temporary house is wanted, either by the native on his plantation, or by the traveler in the forest, nothing is so convenient as the bamboo, with which a house can be constructed with a quarter of the labor and time required when other materials are used.

The natives of the interior make paths for long distances, from village to village, and to their cultivated grounds, in the course of which they have to cross many gullies and ravines, and even rivers; or sometimes, to avoid a long circuit, to carry the path along the face of the precipice. In all these cases, the bridges they construct are of bamboo, and so admirably adapted is the material for the purpose, that it seems doubtful whether they would ever have attempted such works if they had not possessed it.

The native bridge is simple but well designed. It consists merely of stout bamboos crossing each other at the roadway like the letter X, and rising a few feet above it. At the crossing they are firmly bound together, and to a large bamboo which lies upon them, and forms the only pathway, with a slender and often very shaky one to serve hand rail.

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When a river is to be crossed, an overhanging tree is chosen, from which the bridge is partly suspended and partly supported by diagonal braces

from the banks, so as to avoid placing posts in the stream itself, which would be liable to be carried away by floods.

In carrying a path along the face of the precipice, trees and roots are made use of for suspension; braces arise from suitable notches or crevices in the rocks; and, if these are not sufficient, immense bamboos, fifty or sixty feet long, are fixed on the banks or on the branch of a tree below.

These bridges are traversed daily by men and women carrying heavy loads, so that any insecurity is soon discovered, and, as the materials are close at hand, immediately repaired.

When a path goes over very steep ground, and becomes slippery in wet or dry weather, the bamboo is used in another way. Pieces are cut about a yard long, and opposite notches being made at each end, holes are formed through which pegs are driven, and firm and convenient steps are thus constructed with the greatest ease and celerity. It is true that much of this will decay in one or two seasons; but it can be so quickly replaced, as to make its use more economical than that of a harder and more durable wood.

Notes and Questions. - Dy'ak is a name given to the natives of the island of Borneo.

Where is the island of Borneo ?

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One of the most striking uses to which bamboo is applied by the natives, is to assist them in climbing lofty trees. One day I shot a small animal, which caught in a fork of a tree and remained fixed. As I was very anxious to get it, I tried to persuade two young men who were with me to cut down the tree, which was tall, perfectly straight, and smooth-barked, and without a branch for fifty or sixty feet.

To my surprise they said they would prefer climbing it, although it would be a good deal of trouble; but after a little talking together, they said they would try. They first went to a clump of bamboos that stood near, and cut down one of the largest stems. From this they chopped off a short piece, and splitting it, made a couple of stout pegs, about a foot long, and sharp at one end.

Then cutting a thick piece of wood for a mallet, they drove one of the pegs into the tree and hung their weight upon it. It held, and this seemed to satisfy them, for they immediately began making a quantity of pegs of the same kind, while I looked

on with great interest, wondering how they could possibly ascend such a lofty tree by merely driving pegs in it, the failure of any one of which at a good height would certainly cause their death.

When about two dozen pegs had been made, one of them began cutting some very long and slender bamboo from another clump, and also prepared some cord from the bark of a small tree. They now drove in a peg very firmly at about three feet from the ground, and, bringing one of the long bamboos, stood it upright, close to the tree, and bound it firmly to the first two pegs, by means of the bark cord, and small notches near the head of each peg.

One of the men now stood on the first peg, and drove in a third, about level with his face, to which he tied the bamboo in the same way, and then mounted another step, standing on one foot, and holding by the bamboo at the peg immediately above him, while he drove in the next one. In this manner he ascended about twenty feet, when the upright bamboo becoming thin, another was handed up by his companion, and this was joined on by tying both bamboos to three or four of the pegs.

When this was also nearly ended, a third was added, and shortly after, the lowest branches of the tree were reached, along which the young native scrambled, and soon sent the little animal tumbling headlong down.

I was exceedingly struck by the ingenuity of this mode of climbing, and the admirable manner in which the peculiar properties of the bamboo were made available. The ladder itself was perfectly safe,