204 EXTRACTS OF A LETTER 
boots laced up over them. I found several leeches in my boots, vainly 
endeavouring to find some aperture at which to enter. The little crea- 
tures are as tough as leather; nothing will kill them but cutting them 
in pieces. Our guide having been agreed with, we again went on over a . 
very swampy country, crossing numerous paddy-fields and small streams, 
often up to our knees in mud or water. The path was here very bad, 
and at the end of a long day’s walk we found it rather fatiguing. At 
length, between five and six o’clock, we reached the house of the “ Pary- 
ooloo,” or head man of the district, a little old white-headed Malay, 
who gave us the use of the verandah of his house with much civility. 
The next morning early we were again on our way, and found the 
path very bad till we got into a long tract of jungle, where it became 
worse. It was now exceedingly narrow, and at every twenty yards 
there was either a tree fallen across the path to climb over, or a deep 
mud-hole to wade through, neither of which inconveniences could be 
avoided. Nevertheless we walked on briskly, and our men, though 
each carrying a load of about eighty pounds besides his gun, kept up 
with us in a manner that quite astonished me. Along this path we 
overtook or met great numbers of Chinese and Malays going to or re- 
turning from the gold mines of Mount Ophir, which are worked by Chi- 
nese. About ten A.M. we stayed at a brook in the middle of the jungle 
to breakfast, before which we enjoyed a bath in the cool water. Pro- 
ceeding on, in about two hours we emerged from the jungle, and had a 
fine view of the mountain a short distance to our right. Here was an 
~ open space of high grass once cultivated, through which the path led to 
a stream which comes from the mountain. Our men now told us that 
. a path must be cut through the jungle before we could proceed, and it 
. would be better to remain here the rest of the day, while they explored 
and cleared a way for us. Though I am rather doubtful now whether 
this was necessary, we were obliged to submit to their guidance, and 
the two oldest men accordingly went off with their *parangs" (loug 
Malay knives), while we roamed about to explore the locality till dinner- 
time. Close above us, on a bank, were some cocoa-nut and other fruit- 
trees, where a house had once stood, deserted, we were told, on aecount 
of the great number of elephants which infested the locality. All 
. about we found paths trodden by these huge animals, and heaps of 
me their dung in every direction, though all evidently some months old. 
The trunks of the cocoa-nut-trees were much rasped or gnawed at two 
