DR. O. STAPF ON THE FLORA OF MOUNT KINABALU. 75 
slab of granite, and though small it promised good protection, and the mountain 
torrent just at its mouth gave a good supply of water. The mist and rain increased. 
Everything got damper and damper. The boulders of rock over which I had at first 
walked and climbed after plants were gradually submerged in a foaming roaring torrent, 
descending the hill at an angle of about 20°. Some small shrubs grew behind the 
large boulders, being protected by them. These were so encompassed and shaken by 
the water that the torrent could seldom have risen much higher than it was. All 
the afternoon the cold wind blew up the stream into our cave. At 5 p.m. the 
temperature of the air was 11° C., of the water in the torrent 10°C. The aneroid 
read 20°84; the boiling-point was by one thermometer 294° F., by another 90° C. 
There were quantities.of flowering shrubs round our cave and down both sides of the 
torrent. 
“On the 28th the temperature at daybreak was 8°C. About 7 o'clock we started, and 
were soon again on the ridge overlooking the Sugut. The ridge broadened out, and at 
about 11,000 feet we found ourselves in quite a different region at the foot of the granite 
cap, which stood steep and almost bare somewhat on our left. Along our ridge the 
gradually dwarfing shrubs ran up yet another 1000 feet, forming a thick jungle, and 
reached to the eastern end of the granite cap. We avoided this jungle, and keeping on 
the Kadamaian side passed over a flatter area, where many little streams from the granite 
cap collect and unite before beginning the rapid descent past Pakapaka cave. Here 
were patches of shrubs in flower, patches of bare rock, and patches of mossy swamps, 
where grew buttercups, Potentillas, and a small white Gentian. It wasa delightfully 
warm place when the sun was out. We soon began the ascent of the rough granite cap, 
sloping at first but getting gradually steeper, till we were obliged to make use of ledges. 
A little higher up the steepness disappeared, and we found ourselves at the foot of a long 
inclined plane of granite, sloping to us from the north. Low’s Gully was in front, but 
we. kept to the west and reached the top of the sharp northern ridge about its middle. 
It overlooked a lofty precipice, which, with the nearly precipitous sides of a rugged ridge 
running northwards to Mt. Nohan on the east and a buttress of the largest north-west 
peak on the west, formed the boundary of a deep valley with perpendicular sides and a 
narrow outlet to the north-west in the direction of the Pengataran. 
The plants on the top were stunted, only a few inches high, growing only in the 
crevices of the rock, to which they had a very firm hold, so that it was difficult even with 
both hands to collect them with their roots. In two hollows shrubs were growing. 
One was at the foot of Low’s Gully, where was the blood-red Rhododendron: the other 
higher up near the foot of St. John’s Peak; here I collected Rubus Lowi. We stayed 
about a couple of hours on the top collecting all the time, and returned that afternoon 
to Temburungo. It was the last fine day we had, and the mist prevented us from ever 
again getting to 12,000 feet. On April the 2nd we again moved to Pakapaka, and 
stayed there till the 9th: every day the clouds and mists came up about 9 A.M. and rain 
began about noon, and by 1 o’clock the stream in front of our cave had become a roaring, 
foaming, impassable torrent, which subsided in the night. 
* At 8 a.m. on the 8th the thermometer read 9”5 C., the aneroid 20°84, the boiling-point 
