FROM MR. WALLACE. 205 
or three different heights from three to six or seven feet. The lowest 
of these marks were made by deer, who eat the fibrous wood of the 
palm, and the higher ones, our men said, by the elephants. Our hopes 
were thus again excited; but our head man told us that this year the 
elephants had deserted the place ; though only a year ago, when he slept 
at this very spot, he heard their loud trumpetings all around him. We 
were therefore condemned to a quiet night, which we passed sleeping 
on the ground, with our palm mats supported by poles forming a roof 
over us. 
The following morning we started to ascend the mountain, and pro- 
ceeded for about an hour through a flat swampy jungle and occasional 
open grassy fields, till we reached a spot higher up the river we had left. 
Here our guide told us was the last place we should find water till we 
reached the top of the mountain. We therefore stayed here to breakfast, 
and had a small shed made in which to leave most of our baggage, 
‘taking with us only what was absolutely necessary. The little river 
here rushed among large granite rocks, and on its banks were many 
beautiful ferns. From this spot we began to ascend, and for about an 
hour continued climbing up a moderately steep hill. We then rested 
awhile, and were somewhat disgusted when our guide told us we were 
not half-way up the first hill. The most conspicuous objects in this 
jungle were the stemless Pandani, with leaves twenty feet long, like 
immense pine-apples. The prickly climbing palms of the genus Calamus 
Were also abundant, and often of immense size, and fiercely armed with 
thick-set spines. In the more swampy parts of the jungle through which — — 
we passed before breakfast we had been much struck by some gorgeous —— 
flowers which everywhere grew on the surface of the ground without 
stem or leaves; they were of the most intense crimson and yellow, 
and in the gloom were quite dazzling. They belonged however to a 
scitamineous plant which covered the low parts of the jungle, and whose 
leaves grow from the ground on long straight stalks eight to ten feet 
long. As we continued our ascent I found, by looking right and left, 
that the ground fell more or less abruptly on each side of us, and that 
= we were in fact going along a ridge or spur of the mountain. At —— 
length, after a very fatiguing pull, we came to a little level ground, - 
and then commenced a deep descent. We still kept however to the 
ridge, for all the way the ground fell on both sides of us, aud the same 
was the case in the hollow or saddle at the bottom, and in the next 
