IN SUMATRA. 239. 



: The recent rains had produced a flood — the greatest, it was 

 said, for five years^which had riseft from ten tu twelve feet 

 a-bove its ordinary mark. Throughout a distance of from tliirty , 

 to forty miles it had carried away pieces of the Lank from three 

 to five yards wide and from eight to ten feet deep. In these 

 new sections hirge trees (stems and branches) had become ex- 

 posed, buried more than six feet below the surface (;f tin' sur- 

 rounding land, . These sections showed the soil resting on a 

 deep band of clay, which in turn was lying on a thick stratum 

 of shingle, which was being again washed out, tu be subjected 

 to fresh attrition after having rested for many cycles. Below 

 the confluence of the River Tiku, which rises among tlio Palaij- 



ozoic rocks in the Eedjang region a considerable quantity of 

 gold is found when the river is very low, caught among the 

 stones, larger pebbles and sand. This sand is collected^ — the, 

 occupation mostly of the older women — and, ^^hen freed from 

 the larger particles, goes by the name of hungin ; tlie bungin 

 is washed in a broad cone-shaped vessel of wood — the dulang 



■by a rotatory motion, till only an extremely fine heavy blar^k 

 sand (Jcalam) is left. The kalam, which contains the gold is 

 then rotated in the dulang with a little water till the heavier 

 metal falls to the apex of the cone, AvLeuce it is carefully 

 removed. A very successful day's washing in this fashion will 

 bring only Is. 8d. 



With a halt of one night at the village of Ambatjang, so 

 Ciilled from an old large and symmetrical tree of that name 

 (Mangifera foetida) growing in the village, then in magni- 

 ficent blossom, I reached Muara-Rupit at the confluence of 

 the Rawas river, on the afternoon of the second day. Muara- 

 Rupit, to the Ulu men from among whom I had come, is a 

 great place which perhaps some day fate may permit them to 

 visit. To have been to Muara-Rupit from the Ulu country 

 is to have gained a certain precedence amongst tlieir fellow 

 villagers, while to have been to PulGmbang, a to-and- fro jour- 

 ney of six weeks, is to have seen the world! This place is 

 the seat of a great trade; everything from the coast for the 

 Rupit and the country watered by its tributaries, and for the 

 Rawas and its tributaries up to the Djambi country, is brought 



Muara 



carry a company of troops. 



able to 

 irnrised 



