Northern Portion of the Malay Peninsula. 669 



It had been raining hard ever since we arrived in the State, 

 and it continued to rain for the next three days, much to our 

 disgust, as we had nothing to do but watch the waters rise 

 steadily in the rice-fields, rendering it quite impossible for us 

 to travel on to our destination in the interior. The country 

 round being covered with highly cultivated rice-fields, 

 pepper-gardens, or orchard-laud, was most uninviting, and 

 yielded nothing of interest, though the common birds were 

 different from those found in similar situations in Perak and 

 Selangor. The Governor of the State, who had been apprised 

 of our intended visit from Bangkok, but who was absent at 

 the time of our arrival, returned to meet us, but the floods 

 were so high that his motor-car had to be wheeled along 

 the road by a squad of forty coolies. When he turned up, 

 however, be proved most courteous and obliging, putting 

 his country-house at Chong, our destination, at our disposal, 

 and assigning another very comfortable house for the use of 

 our collectors. 



We eventually arrived at Chong, distant twelve or fourteen 

 miles from Tap-tien, along a road which had been originally 

 excellent but was now much damaged by the floods. It 

 passed through very extensive padi-fields, in which much of 

 the rice had been drowned out and would have to be re- 

 planted, and through pepper plantations and orchards, but as 

 the road approached Chong we arrived at more undulating 

 land, largely covered with secondary jungle. There were 

 precipitous limestone hills in the distance, while to the north 

 and south appeared hills of more considerable elevation up 

 to 3000 or 4000 feet in height, forming the main dividing- 

 range of the Peninsula or spurs of that range. 



Chong itself, is a country-seat of the High Commissioner 

 of the Monthon Puket and his subordinate, the Governor of 

 Trang, who is his nephew. There is a large and comfortable 

 plank house here which had been recently occupied by the 

 Crown Prince of Siam. It was painted in broad vertical stripes 

 of red and white, presenting a somewhat bizarre appearance. 

 It was situated on a small hill in the centre of a large park, 

 originally jungle, from which all the undergrowth had been 

 removed, leaving only the larger forest trees, while the hill 



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