IX SUMATllA. 225 



CHAPTER Till. 



SOJOUEN IN" THE PALEMB.VNG RESIDENCY —COili!/M«teJ. 



Leave Tandjon^r-Nin'T — Padnni Ulak-Taiidjonir — Kepala Tjiirup — Hot 

 springs of the Kaba — Kartliqnake — Botanical features— Curious plants — 

 Fertilisation of Melastonia — A pilgrimage — -The crater of the Kaba — The 

 Nomadic Kubus— Rnpit river scenery — Gold gatherers— iluara-rnpit 

 The Darian — Suralanc:un — Thieves and tlueves' calendar^ — Mala\ 



r 



dignity — Leave for Muaia Mengkulem, 



Leaving the Tillage of Tancljong-Ning, I proceeded across a 

 gradually-rising country, at that period very poverty-stricken, 

 in which there was little new or interesting to detain me. 

 Two days brought me to Padang Ulak-Tandjong, on the river 

 Klingi, the seat ot the magistrate of the district, where I was 

 detained for several days owing to the difficulty of obtaining 

 transport. All the able-bodied men had left the district in 

 search of food in far-off parts^ as there had been no rice in their 

 own, from the failure of the crops for several years. 



Ijurup, the nearest village to the Kaba, was ten miles farther 

 on, and eight from the base of the mountain. There I left the 

 heavy baggage, and by a rough and difficult ravine-intersected 

 path through the forest, along which I noticed not a few plants 

 new to me, I proceeded to the hot springs at the base of the 

 Kaba, where I built a hut amid the steam which continually 

 rolled up from the water that bubbles out in the face of a steep 

 ravine at a temperature of 170'' F. 



I had not taken up my quarters many hours before I was 

 made sensibly aware that I was in a volcanic region by a 

 severe and long-continued shock of earthquake. Later on, on 

 the evening of the 16th of September, I again experienced two 

 very strong vertical bumps, which tossed me clean upwards 

 from my chair, dislodged a large pet Hornbill from its perch, 

 and shook a heavy shower of drops from the trees. , The Argus 



