IN SUMATRA. 21 : 



-J 



I was forced to draw my tent-poles in the end of 3Iay, so as to 

 reach Batavia in the beginning of the year 1882 in order to 



prepare for my long-planned expedition to the Far East of the 

 Archipelago. 



It was with the liveliest regret that I took leave of the 

 village of Pan, where I had experienced more pleasure than 

 in any other locality I had yet visited. The climate wag 

 simply delicious. Every forenoon, at least, was bright and 

 sunny, and the heat was never too great to be oppressive or 

 disagreeable, while the evenings were cool and the nights cold 

 enough to make a blanket enjoyable. Sickness was never 

 once thought about. Altogether, but for the diificulties of 

 food supply and companionship I could have wished to reside 

 there always. In its neighbourhood I had gathered nume- 

 rous interesting birds and insects. I had added Asitctojyterns 

 armafiis to the fauna of Sumatra, obtained Pajpilio diaijliantus, 

 Liminitis locldi, and added to science Ixias jlavipenms, and 

 species of Terias, Danais, and KaUima and many of the rarest 

 and most beautiful productions of the vegetable kingdom, 

 especially of the giant trees and among the Orchidaceije and 

 liafflesiacede. 



Retracing my steps to Pagar Alam, I took my way north- 

 eastward, and, crossing the Ayer Durian which has its source 

 in the crater of the Dempo, passed out of the Passumah 

 Lands towards the Xaba. Eeaching Gunung Meraksa, in tho 

 cleft of the Eight and Left Lintang rivers, I learned that I 

 might shorten my way to Tebbing-tinggi by taking a raft 

 journey on the river — a mode of travel I had not before tried. 

 These rafts, made of tiers of bamboo well secured together by 

 pegs and rattan ropes, with an elevated platform in the centre 



out of the reach of water, are guided by two pilots with 



long oars. The Lintang river was very rough and narrow, 

 interrupted at short distances by rapids over which it rcipjired 

 the greatest skill and knowledge of its rocks to guide us in 

 'safety. We sailed mostly between perpendicular banks of 

 rough marls of Miocene age, against whose cliffs in many 

 places the river, descending a stony rapid, precipitated itself, 

 sweeping round its base at a right angle. The danger lay in 

 the raft's not obeying the working of the steersman's long stern- 

 paddle, and being dashed to pieces at these uncanny corners 



